In mid-October, California-native Lauren Schneider received a
letter of thanks from the residents of Hut Bay, India. Enclosed
was a photograph of their new community center, which she had
designed and helped construct less than three months before.
"Just reading those words of thanks and seeing the picture of
the center affected me more than I thought it would," she
says.
When the tsunami hit Southeast Asia in December 2004, it
devastated the Andaman Islands and the town of Hut Bay, killing
150 and leaving 10,000 of its 12,000 residents homeless.
Schneider, a senior majoring in architectural design at
Stanford University, organized a student-run group called
Engineers for a Sustainable World. For six weeks, the students
worked with the Sustainable Environment and Ecological
Development Society (SEEDS) in India to help rebuild the
community.
In the wake of the tsunami, the residents of Hut Bay resided
in 350 temporary housing units, with up to six family members
living in a space the size of a college dorm room. Schneider
was surprised by how immediately she was welcomed by the
locals.
"The people were always so interested in us," she says. "Even
though we couldn?t fully communicate with them, the families
would invite us into their homes for chai. We drank about 10
cups of tea a day."
Through a translator, Schneider asked the people of Hut Bay
what she could do to enhance the quality of life on the island.
"In the temporary housing, they said they didn't have any space
to entertain friends, perform, or to have meetings," she says.
With funding from SEEDS, Schneider drew up plans and met with
local contractors to begin building a community center--a large
gazebo space with a platform for performances and smaller rooms
leading off it where the residents could meet with
friends.
Back at Stanford, Schneider is energized by her eye-opening
experience in India. "It's so rewarding to see this building
built exactly how I imagined it," she says. After seeing the
photograph of her design realized, she says she is inspired to
undertake more development projects in places that are often
overlooked by the wider world. "I envisioned a design,
organized its construction, and I made a real difference in the
lives of these people," she says.
The Abroad View Foundation is an international education
organization that fosters global awareness and cross-cultural
understanding among study abroad students and international
students. www.abroadviewmagazine.com
