The children of Haiti are the driving force behind Design Across Boundaries‘ undertaking of designing a community center abroad, said Michael Vander Ploeg, DAB member and senior in architecture.

“Since going to Haiti, we have built a personal relationship with the community of La Croix and know that they need this facility for the youth to keep them in the township and school,” said Jason Kruse, DAB member and senior in architecture.

One of the biggest problems in La Croix is getting the children to stay in the area during the summer. During the school year they take in around 1,500 students, and during the summer they drop to around 400.

The main reason for this population influx is there isn’t much to do in La Croix. This causes students to go to the nearby city of Gonaives to stay with friends and relatives, because their community has playgrounds, soccer fields and various activities to take part in.

With that big-city atmosphere comes problems. Gang violence, drug abuse, loss in education interest and teen pregnancy are all issues that surround those who travel to Gonaives during the summer.

“Our goal is to build a community center that will keep children in La Croix for the summer as well as providing a source of recreation and extended education for the school in La Croix,” Vander Ploeg said.

“We want to give the youth of La Croix something to be proud of, something to spend time with and something to spark their interest,” said Kristen O’Brien, DAB member and senior in architecture.

It is the hope of the community, as well as part of Silentor Esthil-Henderson’s vision, that the sports complex will be able to hold soccer championships and not only keep the youth of La Croix around in the summers, but also attract people from villages across Haiti.

“This project is unique because it has been completely driven by our individual wills to do better,” O’Brien said. “The message of Pastor Pierre’s sermon on the Sunday we left said it best — ‘Do yourself a favor.'”

“Although our work may seem to be all about giving, we should look at it as doing ourselves the favor of ending the day feeling good about what we’ve accomplished,” O’Brien said. “Of course this spin is not necessarily how I like to think about our work, but it is undoubtedly true that helping others feels good at the end of the day, and that is exactly what we are set out to do — help others — and if in the process it helps us help ourselves, then all the better.”

“We want to make a difference, and this project is a great opportunity to try and use our knowledge and abilities for that greater purpose,” said Thomas Fraser, DAB member and senior in architecture.

Building for the future

DAB hopes to continue a long-lasting relationship with the mission in La Croix. The group would like to help them with other design projects that can better their community in the future and create a form of funding to continue the expansion and upkeep of the community center, which they want to have completed in the next two years.

Future projects they have thought about doing at the HOTH youth mission include a storage building, implementing a sustainable agriculture program and educating students. They want to educate students so they have the opportunity to come to the United States like Esthil-Henderson did, go to a university, then return to Haiti with their knowledge in order to help their country.

Now that DAB members are back in the states, they have not forgotten about their project and the people of La Croix that they are helping. They have started to have independent classes to further their work on the project and hope to get more people integrated from different majors. They feel that no matter what your major is, you can get involved with Haiti somehow.

DAB wasn’t solely created for this project in Haiti, though involvement with Esthil-Henderson’s vision in La Croix has been their first effort as a group. For years they have had a vision about extending out to communities and organizations in need of design help, but had trouble doing this with restrictions that were put on their group.

“Design Across Boundaries was created to break through some of these limiting barriers and simply design for whoever, whenever, wherever or whatever is needed,” Vander Ploeg said.

“The Boundaries in our group’s name work at a micro and macro scale from projects in our backyard to international boundaries,” Kruse said, also mentioning how they are looking to begin projects closer to the Ames area to allow more future members to get involved.

O’Brien stresses that “any groups or persons in need of architectural design help fall under our priorities.”

“Of course, learning about new cultures around the world is an exciting challenge, but what looks to be more exciting, and potentially more challenging will be to help those within our communities solve the problems that our so-called ‘developed’ society has not yet addressed,” O’Brien said.

Closing thoughts

“This experience has extended my education that someone cannot get in the classroom — it’s a real-life project,” Kruse said.

“I was able to experience a country that is in dire shape with one of the poorest economies in the Western Hemisphere; however, I also saw one of the richest cultures, full of optimism and the most humble hospitality that I have ever seen,” Vander Ploeg said.

“I’ve taken away a sense that anyone can help,” O’Brien said. “Each person possesses something they can bring to the table. Whether this be professional experience, personal experience or no experience at all. Fresh minds and different perspectives allow for richer solutions.”

They even brought back a sense of what it means to be happy and content with what you have.

“In the beginning, it was so easy to focus on what the people were living without, and by the end it was so apparent what they were living with,” O’Brien said.

One of her favorite quotes, “We are happy in proportion to the things we can live without” by Henry David Thoreau, describes it perfectly, she said.

“This is what makes the Haitian people some of the happiest people I have ever met. What appears to be living without anything is actually living with everything,” O’Brien said.

Though DAB is somewhat worried about what might happen now that they’ll be gone from Haiti for a little while, they still have high hopes for their vision.

“We could really have an impact in this place,” Fraser said.