USFCH United States Foundation for the Children of Haiti Working to support the Fondation Pour les Enfants d’Haiti
Making a difference, one child at a time
April 2013
RE: Primary School Construction Proposal
The Foundation for the Children of Haiti (FCH) is preparing to build a new primary school on its property in the Puits Blain neighborhood of Delmas, Haiti. This property is commonly known as the Children’s Village property and is currently the site of FCH’s Rainbow of Love Orphanage and Hope Home for Disabled Children.
The new school will have the capacity to serve 300 students. 150 students will be from FCH orphanages and 150 students will be from the surrounding community. The school will provide primary education services from Kindergarten through 6th grade (children from 5 to 11 years old). The school will also provide special education services for those children who reside in FCH’s home for disabled children. While the school will support the educational needs of the orphans in FCH’s care it will also be providing a service to the Puits Blain neighborhood which is underserved with regard to primary education.
The construction planning has already begun on this school project. Architecture and construction plans have been drawn up and a construction budget is complete (see attached documents). FCH continues to work with the architect, engineer, and builder who constructed FCH’s other facilities which all well withstood the 2010 earthquake.
FCH is currently looking for partners and donors to help finance the construction of this school. $5,000 has already been spent on this project and another $26,000 has been collected and set aside for the first phase of construction. The total cost of the project is $580,000 (see attached budget).
Please consider joining this exciting project that is designed to provide a quality education to the children of Haiti. Help give the children the tools to become the doctors, teachers, engineers, and business professionals who will make the changes needed to change the course of Haiti’s future.
Thank you for your consideration.
Steven Smith
Board Member USFCH
Proposal Contents
∙Proposal Statement
∙Primary School Information
∙Architectural Drawings and Plot Layout
∙Construction Budget (Translated)
∙Description of FEH Leadership and History
∙Original Design Drawings and Budget (French)
Informationon the FEH Primary School Project
The proposed primary school is a two story structure with 7,760 square feet of space.
The school includes
∙Ten classrooms
∙A large meeting room
∙Four student washrooms
∙Two administration office rooms
∙One office washroom
∙Ramp access for handicapped students
∙A courtyard for outside play and congregation
The school will be built on FEH owned property that already contains an orphanage and a home for the care of handicapped children.
The construction plan meets new building codes that ensure that the school can withstand future earthquakes and hurricanes. See the attached architectural drawings for layout and dimensions.
The expected total cost of constructing the school is $580,000 (see attached budget).
The school will serve up to 300 students a year, providing education from Kindergarten through 6th grade.
Tuition is free but families of students from the community are asked to pay a small fee to invest in their child’s education (around $5 for the year).
Each student is provided with the needed school supplies and a school uniform. A nutritious meal is provided to each student every school day.
The cost of educating the students is funded by individual donors who sponsor children and by philanthropic organizations that focus on funding education projects.
Construction Project Budget of an Elementary Schoolfor
The Foundation for the Children of Haitiat Delmas 75
(Translation from the original in French)
Price Schedule
Description / Unit / Quantity / Unit price in US$ / Total Price in US$Surveying and Building Layout / FF / 2,297.00
Terracing and earthwork / M3 / 646 / 20.86 / 13,475.56
Excavation trenches / M3 / 200 / 16.20 / 3,240.00
Reinforced concrete footings / M3 / 70 / 324.46 / 22,712.20
Plinth blocks 30 (sub-basement) / M2 / 280 / 54.92 / 15,377.60
Filling / M3 / 376.2 / 18.89 / 7,106.42
Reinforced poured concrete floor / M3 / 59.6 / 355.95 / 21,214.62
Vertical reinforced concrete wall ties / M3 / 45.12 / 960.70 / 43,346.78
Masonry blocks / U / 7000 / 2.50 / 17,500.00
Reinforced concrete slab / M2 / 395 / 150.00 / 59,250.00
Horizontal supports / ML / 630 / 35.44 / 22,327.20
Metal roofing / M2 / 477.6 / 85.09 / 40,638.98
Plastering and coating / M2 / 3250 / 14.40 / 46,800.00
Ceiling / M2 / 397 / 39.80 / 15,800.60
Ceramic tiles / M2 / 542 / 30.47 / 16,514.74
Bay windows (glass slides) / M2 / 70 / 150.25 / 10,517.50
Steel bars for windows / M2 / 54 / 73.75 / 3,982.50
Sanitation installed / U / FF / 51,000.00
Electrical installed / FF / 30,000.00
Painting / M2 / 3250 / 4.50 / 14,625.00
Tank Construction / GI / 7000 / 2.50 / 17,500.00
Metal doors / U / 20 / 442.50 / 8,850.00
Wood doors / U / 20 / 300.63 / 6,012.60
Retaining walls / M3 / 118 / 170 / 20,060.00
Courtyard / M2 / 250 / 200.0 / 50,000.00
Concrete ramp and stairs / FF / 4,000.00
Wrought iron railing / MI / 25 / 75.00 / 1,875.00
Insurance and permit fees (OFATMA) / 14,000.00
Total / 580,024.31
Five hundred twenty thousand, one hundred eighty-two dollars and 31 cents.
Thony Achille,
Civil Engineer
Leadership and History of the Foundation for the Children of Haiti
In Haiti the Foundation for the Children of Haiti (FCH) is known as Fondation Pour les Enfants d’Haiti (FEH).
The President and CEO of FEH is Gladys Thomas. For over 30 years Gladys has been committed to serving the most vulnerable of Haiti’s people, Haiti’s children. Starting from a single orphanage in Port-au-Prince, FEH has expanded its mission to include several primary schools, additional orphanages, special care for the handicapped, and a high-quality, full-service hospital. In January of 2013 Gladys was recognized for her excellent humanitarian work in Haiti when she was awarded the William Jefferson Clinton Goodwill for Haiti Awardby the international charity Haven (
Gladys grew up in the town of St. Michel de l’Attalaye in the countryside of Haiti. After completing high school, Gladys came to the United States and earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing.
1981 - Gladys returns to Haiti after earning her degree. Shortly thereafter she is asked to take over a failing orphanage that was abandoned by its director. Its children were hungry and plagued by pests. With the help of generous donors Gladys is able to turn the orphanage around, ensuring that the children have enough to eat and a safe place to live. Gladys renovates the facility so that the children have a clean and healthy home.
1982 – The orphanage is renamed Haiti Home for Children. It is FEH’s first facility.
1983 – Gladys opens the School of the Good Soweron the grounds of Haiti Home for Children in order to provide elementary education to the orphans in her care and to provide education to children in the neighborhood.
1986 – Gladys is brought an increasing number of abandoned babies, many deserted at the Port-au-Prince General Hospital. Gladys rents a house and opens the Rainbow of Love Nursery to care for orphaned and abandoned infants.
1989 – The non-profit Fondation Pour les Enfants d’Haiti (FEH) is established and registered with the government of Haiti. FEH becomes responsible for the operation of the orphanage, school, and nursery.
1989 – The non-profit United States Foundation for the Children of Haiti (USFCH) is created to support Gladys’s work. Volunteers in the US work on behalf of FEH projects and operations.
1993 – Gladys rents another house and opens Hope Home for Handicapped Children in order to care for twenty-four severely handicapped children who were abandoned at the Port au Prince General Hospital.
1994 – FEH opens Hope Hospital, a pediatric hospital in Port-au-Prince that provides medical care for the children in FEH orphanages and outpatient care to children in the community. A year later Hope Hospital becomes a fully operational medical facility, providing inpatient and outpatient medical treatment to the public.
1998 – Hope Hospital expands its mission to include prenatal and maternity care.
2003 – Faced with the difficulties of operating the Nursery and Hope Home out of rented properties, FEH purchases a two-acre property close to Hope Hospital to develop the Children’s Village of Hope. The vision for the Children’s Village is a campus of facilities to care for all the orphans under FEH’s care in one location. In 2003 FEH completes its first facility in the Children’s Village and moves the Nursery and Hope Home operations onto FEH property.
2005 – The Adult Outpatient Clinic is opened to the public at Hope Hospital.
2008 – FEH completes the construction of its second facility in the Children’s Village: a residence that is specifically designed to serve the needs of the disabled children in FEH’s care. This facility becomes the new location of Hope Home for Handicapped Children.
2009 – FEH opens a primary school in the countryside town of Musotte, Haiti. In its first year the school educates thirty children from the community. (As of 2013, enrollment is 175 students.)
2010 – A catastrophic earthquake strikes Haiti. FEH withstands the devastation that destroys much of Port-au-Prince. Thousands of patients are treated at Hope Hospital. Donors from around the world send supplies, financial assistance, medical aid, and volunteers to FEH because it is well known that FEH has a long track record of using resources wisely. Throughout the immediate aftermath and recovery, the hospital has been fully operational, providing care to the distressed Haitian people.
2011 – FEH draws up plans for a primary school in the Children’s Village. The school will support the education of orphans housed by FEH and needy children in the Puits Blain neighborhood.
2012 – The Haitian government donates twenty acres of land to FEH for the development of an educational campus in Musotte. This land is contiguous to the property on which FEH operates its Musotte primary school.
Gladys and FEH remain committed to projects that have a deep impact on Haitian education, economic development, and health care.
USFCH P.O. Box 521171, Tulsa, OK 74152-1171 a 501(c)(3) organization