MERCI A JEAN SPRUMONT
T
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eaching how to build with more solid materials, using
earthquake-resistant methods - this is the aim of the pilot project providing
training to Haitian masons in Camp-Perrin, in southwest Haiti. Supported by UNESCO and currently starting
its third session, the project was launched on 10 March when UNESCO’s
Director-General Irina Bokova was visiting Haiti.
By Mehdi
Benchelah
Holding a spade,
Jean Sprumont works with vigorous gestures. After a few minutes, in the
courtyard cluttered with sieves and moulds for concrete blocks, a crater of
cement, sand and water has taken form. Showing the greyish paste, Sprumont
speaks in Creole to the 15 Haitian construction workers attending the training
course in earthquake-resistant methods: “Sa se béton kalité. Kalité do
kibon pouli é lyben brasé” (This is good concrete. It has the right quantity of
water and it is well mixed).
Jean Sprumont
stands out among the trainers. The Belgian project manager has been living in
Haiti for 44 years. He was in Port-au-Prince on 12 January and saw entire
buildings collapse in a few seconds. “The city was built using concrete in a
completely haphazard way,” he says bitterly. “We saw the tragic result.”
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| SAUT MATHURINE, CAMP PERRIN |
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