"The construction defects in buildings have killed more people than the earthquake itself. This sad observation is shared today by all the Haitian and international authorities and construction professionals. The roofs of houses, made of wood and concrete, were largely damaged by the earthquake of 12 January 2010. The structures of the houses and the premises of the administrations, made of poor quality materials, did not resist either. As the buildings were not built to earthquake-resistant standards, nearly 80% of them collapsed on 12 January 2010.

In order to prevent such a disaster from happening again and to give Haitians the opportunity to take charge of their future, Aide et Action and its partner Quisqueya University, in partnership with the Schneider Electric Group and its Foundation, have proposed to the national authorities a project to train young Haitians in the construction industry. At the same time, this professional training project includes the training of municipal engineers in earthquake engineering.

At the request of the Institut National de la Formation Professionnelle, a partner in the project, fifteen municipal engineers from the communes of Cap-Haitien and the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area followed five training modules on earthquake engineering for 80 hours.

During one week, participants learned about Haiti's seismicity, earthquake-resistant masonry, bracing in seismic zones, soils and their characteristics in seismic zones, and the construction of earthquake-resistant and anti-cyclonic individual houses.

In order to facilitate the dissemination of this knowledge, the town halls have at their disposal modules and tools enabling them to transfer this training to communal organisations and to move towards the implementation of construction standards that take into account Haiti's environment.