Helping Haiti Recover through the Promise of a Library
Carolina Tavares, alumna of the UC Davis Blum Center Summer Fellows Program, continues to work towards building a library in Anse-à-Pitres, amidst challenges and setbacks.
Carolina Taveres, former Blum Center Summer Fellow, has been working with the community in Anse-à-Pitres to build a local library for over five years. In 2011, she received a Blum Center Summer Fellows grant to provide Spanish lessons for community members, given that their market clientele was mostly from the Dominican Republic. Through this experience, Taveres learned that the community was looking for a library.
Working with public authorities and an architectural engineering firm in the region to design an earthquake secure building, Taveres created a foundation back in the United States to build the library. After receiving a subsequent grant from the Blum Center, construction on the library was underway. However, when Hurricane Matthew swept through Haiti in 2016, parts of the library and its materials were destroyed. Efforts are underway to repair the damage, and put the project back on a path to completion. Please visit the following article to learn more about this project.
