Xref
Xref Travels: Returning to Casa Hogar Orphanage
May 16th, 2013
By Brenda Cintron, Designer
My final Xref trip to the Casa Hogar Orphanage in Guadalajara, Mexico was a success! My husband and I delivered all the shoes and framed photos to the children at the orphanage this April. Read about my first trip to the orphanage here, where we photographed each child, then returned to HMC and set up an exhibition to inspire staff to sponsor a child for $25, enough to buy them a pair of shoes and frame their photo for them.
The video below documents the second trip to Casa Hogar, where my husband and I packed up all the shoes and photos donated by HMC staff and delivered them to each child.
Want to learn more about Casa Hogar? Visit my blog: www.onehundredfaces.com
Posted in Xref
The City: Birth, Life and Death of Earth’s Longest Living Organisms
March 30th, 2013
By Charlie Payne
In early February I traveled to Detroit to embark on the first leg of a three-part Xref journey to study cities as living organisms in various stages of life, and the role that architecture plays in those stages. Detroit, of course, has fallen on extremely difficult times. It’s often regarded as one of the worst urban tragedies of the nation, perhaps one of the worst in the world, and thus the city was (originally) representative of the “death” of the city organism.
Michigan Grand Central Station, an iconic symbol of the Detroit’s grandiose past and troubled present.
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Posted in Designing Futures Foundation,Xref
Xref Travels: 100 Faces
February 19th, 2013
By Brenda Cintron, Designer
I recently returned from my Xref trip to the Casa Hogar orphanage in Guadalajara, where I was able to get to know new faces at the orphanage and photograph each child, most of whom have never had their photo taken. The majority of kids arrived at the orphanage for one of several reasons. They were either severely abused, abandoned, or their parents had passed away. The age of children here range from 1.5 years to 16 years. They all go to school during the week and occasionally have field trips around town on the weekends.
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Posted in Xref
Xref Update: The City
November 26th, 2012
By: Charlie Payne, Designer
The Timeline:
Detroit: February 8-13
Dubai: April 12-18
Istanbul: April 18-28
Hurdles in Planning:
Such a large endeavor involved careful consideration of time and budget. I found that tickets to the middle east purchased within 6 months of the trip were prohibitively expensive, so the earliest I could leave would have been December. However, Istanbul is also known for its dismal winter weather. Records indicate precipitation for around 80% of the days from December to February, with temperatures averaging in the upper 30s to mid-40s. This left only a short window of time between the winter months and next year’s X-Ref competition, which the journey must be completed before. Thus I decided on two weeks in mid-April for the trip to the middle east.
This left limited options for the journey to Detroit. In order to establish an effective comparison between the cities, I needed the Detroit trip to be relatively close to the middle east trip without taking too much time away from the office at once. June would be too late, so the only months left after the holiday season were January and February. Detroit winter weather is almost surely as bad or worse than that of Istanbul, but options were limited and the middle east trip was far more expensive to plan. What will be interesting is the impact the season has on the perception of Detroit as a living organism; will it appear cold and dead, or will the life of the city stand in beautiful contrast to the stark winterscape?
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Posted in Xref
Xref Update: 100 Faces
November 15th, 2012
By: Brenda Cintron, Designer
The date is set, the first flight has been booked, and now I anxiously wait for January 23rd to make my first trip down to Guadalajara, Mexico. For those of you that don’t know about my xref project, the idea is simple but very personal to me in many ways. I will photograph one hundred faces of children and gift them a framed portrait so that when they leave the orphanage they will have something to look back at and share with their future families. The best part about it is that I will be bringing all those photographs back and our HMC community will have the opportunity to sponsor a child with a pair of shoes.
These children don’t have parents that go around and photograph every milestone in their life. We know that most parents now have their phone full of family photos that tell stories of their child’s first step, their funny faces, school art projects, pumpkin carving, the list goes on and on, but these kids don’t have anyone to record these moments for them.
The hardest part of planning the trip has been communication. Even though I have talked to the director and we have planned time set apart for activities, I sometimes wish that communication was as quick as it is within our social networks. The funny thing is that many times when I ask questions they reply sooner or later but never seem to answer all of them. The good thing is that in our last conversation the director said, “Our doors are open to you and we are at your command.”
I don’t know what many of these kids have gone through, or are going through, but my intent is to share a little bit about every single one with you. I would like for many of you to be part of this journey with me, and I will try to make it as easy as possible for you to follow in hope that when I return you will be forming a line to sponsor a child with a pair of shoes. I have created a blog and even though there is not much there right now, make sure to come back to it in January as I will be posting about the trip and sharing a few photos of the children while I am down there.
Posted in Xref
Back from Haiti, Ready to Inspire
February 14th, 2012
By Kaysha Bucher, Interior Designer
One year ago, I submitted a proposal for HMC’s Xref travel fellowship to realize my long-awaited aspiration of making a difference. With a love for children and a dream in my heart to see schools built abroad, I took a leap of faith into an experience that has furthered my passion to see change across the world. For me, this leap started in Haiti. Now back in the states, I’m thankful and appreciative for this opportunity to travel and make a difference.
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Posted in Xref | 1 Comment »
Assessing Earthquake-Damaged Schools in Haiti
February 2nd, 2012
By Kaysha Bucher, Interior Designer
Part of my Xref journey and task here in Haiti is to help with the assessment of 200 Catholic schools across the country. Schools for Children of the World has hired 11 teams trained to assess existing conditions of these schools by using a special assessment program for the iPad. Over the last three days, I have been all over the Haitian countryside to accomplish the given task. Starting on Monday morning, Alex and I were assigned to visit four schools in the city of Miragoane, Haiti. The drive to Miragoane is a bumpy one and takes about two hours from Leogane.
Along with our translator and driver, we arrived at our first school site, Ecole Notre Dame de Lourdes, holding 749 students and 17 professors. The main buildings were badly damaged in the earthquake, six of which are still partially in use. The remaining classes are held in three temporary structures on the school site, totaling to nine buildings on site. The school director mentioned that if they could have more classrooms, they could enroll another 300+ children waiting to attend the school the coming year.
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Posted in Xref | 1 Comment »
Update from Haiti: School Site Visits
January 30th, 2012
By Kaysha Bucher, Interior Designer
Upon arrival at the Port-au-Prince airport, myself and project coordinator, Alex, were picked up by Jason, a project leader and architect for Schools for Children of the World. Thankfully, all of our baggage made it safely and we shuffled our way through the chaos of porters offering to help us with our bags. Jason, thankful to have the company of new visitors, was a thorough tour guide speaking to the bustling activity as we bumped our way through the streets of Port-au-Prince to our final destination of Leogane, Haiti. Leogane was the epicenter of the 2010 earthquake, and although the streets are active, it is much calmer than the city.
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Haiti Bound!
January 26th, 2012
By Kaysha Bucher, Interior Designer
Packed and prepped, I’m ready to begin my 10 day adventure in Haiti!
At the start of this new year, my arrangements were finalized to take-off for my long-awaited Xref trip. Through HMC’s Xref travel fellowship, I will be traveling with Schools for Children of the World to visit Haiti and aid in new school design and construction. I depart this Friday, and I’ve been full of anticipation all week; this trip has been on my heart for a long time.
After a call yesterday to the team in Haiti for final instruction and words of wisdom, I am equipped for an intensive work schedule. While there, I will be part of a team assessing the conditions of 200 existing schools as well as documenting drawings for several schools soon ready for construction. Additionally, I will visit new schools already underway to oversee construction and gauge advancement.
Thanks to the generosity of my co-workers in the LA studio, I won’t be traveling empty-handed to this country in need. Contributions have been generous as HMC hands and hearts brought in monetary donations, school supplies, books, shoes, warm weather clothing, backpacks, small toys, and soccer balls. Traveling with these supplies, my hope is to bring a special blessing to the children who will attend the schools I will be working on.
A big thanks to HMC for all their generosity, I’m looking forward to blogging about my journey in the coming days!
Posted in Xref
Xref Greetings from Denmark
July 13th, 2011
By Ruth Oh
Today is my third day here on my Xref trip and first day of cycling the bike route 6, beginning in Odense and ending the day in Nyborg. The path took us through breathtaking plains, winding woods, and colorfully quaint provincial towns. While the summer months here are known to be very rainy, we have had cooperative 70 degree sunny weather so far. Some sunscreen and plenty of water were required for today’s ride.
Posted in Xref
