Students Rebuild is a collaborative initiative of the Bezos Family Foundation that inspires young people to connect, learn and take collective action on critical global issues. Since its genesis in January, 2010, in response to the devastating Haiti earthquake, Students Rebuild has mobilized thousands of young people in over 40 countries and all 50 U.S. states. Click here to download our overview fact sheet.

 
Founded in response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, our first initiative—Students Rebuild: Haiti—called on students around the globe to raise money to rebuild schools in Haiti. It combined a $500,000 matching grant from the Bezos Family Foundation with Architecture for Humanity’s international design and reconstruction expertise and Global Nomads Group’s worldwide network of students and educators. The challenge: create a team to raise money, which will be matched dollar for dollar by the Bezos Family Foundation The Result: 125 Teams composed of 3400 students from 9 countries helped to summon over $680,000 to support 5 schools, build 50 classrooms & benefit 2000 students. Read More Haiti Success Stories.


On Friday, March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake struck Sendai, Japan, resulting in a devastating tsunami that ravaged the coast just 180 miles from Tokyo. In response, Students Rebuild partnered with DoSomething.org to ensure students worldwide have a way to support their Japanese peers. 

The challenge: make & mail 100,000 cranes. The goal: 100,000 cranes to represent wishes of support and healing, which would trigger $200,000 from the foundation to fund Architecture for Humanity's Sendai reconstruction efforts in partnership with Japanese designers and builders. According to legend, anyone who folds a thousand paper cranes, which are sacred creatures in Japanese culture, will be granted a wish by a crane. 

The response: over 2,000,000 cranes from 38+ countries! From Armenia to New Zealand, from rural Kansas to urban Philadelphia, from elementary school classrooms to church basements and community cherry blossom festivals, young people came together to fold paper cranes—and mailed them by the boxful. Students in Haiti folded hundreds of cranes for Japan during the groundbreaking of a newly reconstructed Students Rebuild school in Port au Prince. All told, we tallied an incredible 2 million cranes—exceeding our wildest hopes.  Read More Japan Success Stories. 


One Million Bones is our open challenge! Students Rebuild has joined the One Million Bones project in a global effort to cover the National Mall in Washington D.C. in 2013 with 1,000,000 handmade bones as a visual petition against humanitarian crises like ongoing conflict, draught and famine. Students Rebuild is challenging students worldwide to make bones, as a symbol of solidarity with victims and survivors of ongoing conflict in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia. Each bone generates $1 for CARE’s work in these regions, up to $500,000. Hundreds of teams from 31 countries and all 50 U.S. states have contributed more than 650,000 handmade bones to date! Join us as we continue to support the One Million Bones project and raise support for CARE's efforts! Read More One Million Bones Success Stories.