Keith Cobell, Extollo President:
That these last two months have been eventful for Extollo is a profound understatement. The month of September started off with great progress with our tilt-up and metal fabrication operations, reaping the fruit of much labor, as we erected two (2) tilt-up houses on campus and 100’ of tilt-up security wall along the western side of our campus. Excellent progress was being made in other areas of Extollo’s mission as well. Then, come mid-September the security situation in the country began to deteriorate rapidly, with our expat staff evacuating and our Haiti team sheltering in place at home or evacuating to safer areas. The month of October ended with virtually no access to fuel in the country, people desperate for drinking water, a cholera outbreak, and the government asking for an international military force to restore order. We are grateful for all the ways God has protected our team members and how we have been able to pivot our construction operations to humanitarian work, now supplying our local communities with drinking water. Thank you everyone for your continued prayers for protection for the staff, our campus remaining safe, and that stability returns to Haiti as soon as possible.
BERCY CAMPUS:
Two back-to-back welding classes were planned in addition to a masonry class, with registration for both welding classes already filled. Due to blocked roads and demonstrations, these Level 1 trainings for September were postponed.
In October, the trade school took advantage of the campus closure and downtime to focus on updating the Electrical curriculum. In addition to revising the English version of exercises, the manual and tests, we have added instructor notes to this class. These changes will help keep our instructors on track and ensure students are taught key learning objectives.
PRACTICUM:
September was a huge month for our tilt-up team. With expat visitors: Sherman, Shane, Michael, Greg, and crane operator, Tyler, on campus to lead the work, the team installed a tilt-up security wall and two prototype homes using Extollo’s new crane. Our Haiti staff learned valuable new skills and became the first ever Haitian tilt-up workers!
The metal fabrication group also completed its first outside project building 16 school desks for MBO/Lifesong for Orphans, which are both functional and beautiful.
Take a look at the first tilt-up construction in Haiti!!
Seven cherry trees were planted and starting to produce fruit at the back security wall.
Pomegranate tree is now producing fruit at Staff House 2 after much caring.
Shade trees were planted and thriving around the security wall and houses.
Garden area is now being used as a source of food by providing healthy soil from compost and hard work.
In early October, Sherman Balch and Keith Cobell attended the TCA Expo – the annual industry conference for tilt-up construction. Sherm and Keith were given the opportunity to present Extollo’s tilt-up work to 850+ industry leaders during the awards ceremony.
Extollo held our first virtual Extollo Summit on September 24th. We were so happy to see some of your faces, but if you missed it, you can watch the recording below!
(Recorded 9.24.22) Extollo leadership shares milestones and updates from 2022 as well as current challenges and where they're headed...
Due to the significant humanitarian crisis in our area due to the lack of fuel, and therefore lack of drinking water, we began in October to redeploy our Construction Team from construction to distributing drinking water to our local communities. We are currently serving thousands of people in the Bercy and Leveque areas, including schools, orphanages, churches, families, and individuals.
