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INTERVENTION AFTER TSUNAMI IN APRIL 2007
EVALUATION MISSION AND ELABORATION OF A RECONSTRUCTION PLAN
On the 1st April 2007, a tsunami hit the small archipelago of the Solomon Islands, which is situated in Australasia, following an underwater earthquake. A team from Emergency Architects immediately went there to carry out an evaluation mission. During this mission, they were assisted by the members of Emergency Architects Australia (based in Sidney).
In the days following the earthquake the two experts from Emergency Architects evaluated the situation at Gizo. To help them do this, especially for the schools which had been damaged, they used data provided by the National Disaster Council (NDC).
In their evaluation, Emergency Architects decided to introduce 2 specific programmes: a training course and a brochure.
Training course
An Australian team from Emergency Architects put in place a training course for the local population in basic building methods. This course was based on a series of workshops destined to help them re-build their homes and the construction of prototype housing on the Island of Ranonga (one of the Islands worst hit by the tsunami).
Creation of a brochure
Following this, Emergency Architects produced a brochure to show the basic concepts of elementary construction techniques. This was done solely by diagrams which were simple to put into operation. This brochure was then distributed to the inhabitants.
Re-building of a primary school in Gizo
In a second phase, Emergency Architects decided to re-build the primary school in the town of Gizo, on the Island of Gizo, in the western province of the Solomon Islands, which was one of the worst hit by the tsunami in April 2007.
The construction of this school, baptised Ngari, started on 17th September 2008, was essential: the town of Gizo is in effect the second biggest agglomeration of the Solomon Islands. The school, which has two classrooms, serves the children from 11 villages.
The ceremony to hand over the keys, on 4th December, 2008, was a very important event for the community. The school of Gizo was in fact the first school to be re-built after the catastrophe of 2007. A great deal of work still needs to be done: we can still count there are a further 143 schools which need to be re-built or rehabilitated.
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Missions 
