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HAITI EARTHQUAKE

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After the immediate chaos and confusion of this natural disaster, the importance of built environment expertise in the reconstruction effort will play a vital role in the coming months. With much of the death caused by the collapse of buildings, the recovery process is an opportunity to build back better: built environment skills should play a crucial role in safe guarding lives by designing seismically resistant buildings that reduce the risk of death in future disasters. Carefully designed and executed reconstruction of safer structures will offer some security to those that have lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods in the latest tragedy to befall Haiti.

Article 25 saw the value of applying intelligent building expertise firsthand in our work delivering seismically resistant housing following the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. 

Article 25 is monitoring the international response effort, examining the best way to coordinate with key agencies and channel built environment skills into the reconstruction phase to come.

The 7.0-magnitude quake, Haiti's worst in two centuries, struck at 16:53 local time (21:53 GMT) on Tuesday, January 12th, just 15km (10 miles) south-west of the capital Port-au-Prince. Tens of thousands are feared dead with up to three million affected and tens of thousands of buildings destroyed. The current priority is the rescue effort and the following major pledges have been made:

• The World Bank is funding $100m of emergency aid
• The World Food Programme is working on supplying 15,000 tonnes of food
• The Red Cross has begun a $10m appeal and has set up a website for registering missing relatives: www.icrc.org/familylinks

NEWS

Article 25 Wins 5 Vodafone World of Difference Awards for 2010 ** House Party - Shadow Culture Secretary Ed Vaizey is hosting a dinner at the House of Commons, on Febraury 11th 2010 on behalf of Article 25. Kevin McCloud will be our guest speaker. Tickets on sale now!  ** Art for Architecture event raises over £50,000 through donated pieces from the worlds greatest artists and architects   **  Team Green Tea return from Cuba where they cycled 380 kilometres for Article 25  ** Article 25 chosen as sponsored charity of BD Architect of the Year Awards 2009 ** ^{_{More News}}

The 25th Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the only article which refers to the built environment. It says that adequate shelter and housing are a fundamental human right.

Article 25 is a UK registered charity that designs and delivers architectural solutions for those in greatest need worldwide.  We build bigger, better, safer, more sustainable, innovative structures in developing countries and after disaster. We have saved projects which would have failed, made buildings safe which would have been deadly and provided buildings which our partner charities thought would take three or four times the budget we used.

We are architects, engineers, physicists, project managers and other built environment experts. We build schools bridges, clinics and homes, and rebuild lives. We provide free or not for profit construction services to aid agencies, charities, NGOs and communities.

We are an operational NGO – which many are not. This means we are active running our projects as a full service team, not placing lone professionals on the ground, unsupported. We work through the whole project with full community involvement an we give people buildings which are  a lasting  tool for combatting poverty and reaching the MDGs.

We have a database (the BEAR) of dedicated volunteers and a core of incredible professional staff, working for those who most need us, but would not otherwise be able to afford professional skills. We make community consultation and participation the centre of our projects. We build capacity.

We envision a world where there is never a life or a livelihood lost for the want of a built solution that can preserve or serve it.

REGISTER TODAY TO RUN IN THE THIRD ANNUAL ROYAL PARKS HALF MARATHON!  More details...

[ the declaration of human rights ]

This extract below is from Third World Network: http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/housing.htm

"Since the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to adequate housing has found explicit recognition in a wide range of international instruments.

The Declaration itself, in Article 25.1, says that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood beyond his control." The right to adequate housing has been further elaborated in Art. 11.1 of the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and in other instruments focussing on the need to protect rights of particular groups; the 1979 Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Art. 14.2), the 1989 Convention on Rights of the Child (Art. 16.1), and the 1951 Convention on Status of Refugees (Art. 21)"

_{^{UN Declaration of Human Rights}}

Registered Charity Number: 1112621

Registered Company Number: 5608022

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