Aug 7 2010
Clayton Homes, the nation’s largest modular and manufactured home builder, will soon be shipping classrooms to Haiti as part of an agreement with the Clinton Foundation…all part of an incredible humanitarian effort spearheaded by former President Bill Clinton.
During the groundbreaking ceremony in Haiti with former President Clinton, Kevin Clayton, CEO of Clayton Homes, announced, “We are delighted to work with the Clinton Foundation in participation with the UN, Red Cross, World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank to help rebuild Haiti. This program will help get children back in school and create much needed Haitian jobs.”
Clayton, a Berkshire-Hathaway Company, has significantly reduced the cost of the classrooms in support of this important initiative. The company plans to also supply discounted homes, specially designed for international shipping.
“Ultimately our goal is to help Haiti develop facilities where they can build classrooms and homes themselves,” said Clayton. “This will help meet their ongoing housing requirements and build a new local industry.” Clayton also hopes the program can be a model for assisting other nations with their housing and school initiatives. “We have dozens of production facilities all across the U.S.,” he said. “We hope to use that expertise to help developing nations learn the quality, cost and eco-friendly benefits of this building process.”
When former President Bill Clinton was named to head the relief effort, Clayton’s Director of International Development, Paul Thomas, called the Clinton Foundation to see if there was a way to help. That led to the involvement with the UN and to the announcement today in Haiti.
Such international efforts are not new to Clayton Homes. Through its Building Solutions Group, the company has tackled such challenges before. “We have been engineering and designing structures that can be shipped around the world since the 1980s,” said Thomas. “We have the expertise to assist emerging economies with their affordable housing, right down to the coordination of on-site development.”
“We agree with President Clinton’s assessment that this is an important and critical first step in a sustainable future for Haitians and we are grateful to be a part of it,” added Clayton.
Source: http://www.claytonhomes.com/