“The best way to predict the future is to design it” (Buckminster Fuller)

This week’s email comes from our Project Officers – Busiwa Namwila and Irving Lukoma.

Our Eco project is a six-month pilot project aimed at constructing latrine privacy walls and outdoor learning centres using recycled plastic bottles, glass bottles, sand bags, and tires. Under this project we have successfully completed the construction of five privacy walls for the latrines at Mkale and we are currently constructing an outdoor learning space at Mnyaula.

Using what could otherwise be trash along with natural materials such as rock, sand and straw, these structures are quite strong. Our learners will not only benefit from the privacy walls and outdoor learning centre, but also from the excellent example of turning waste into function. This is part of an environmental sustainability project funded by Addax & Oryx foundation and we are excited to see what we learn!

What makes our project extra special is that it empowers women. The construction team is comprised of four women who have learned new techniques and married them with their existing knowledge. They are certainly inspiring!

Our outdoor learning centre is being designed to provide an extra learning space at Mnyaula, a school that has seen an increase in learner enrolment. We are excited about this construction because not only will it provide two additional covered spaces for our learners, but the unique design will also showcase all the eco building skills by having a combination of several different kinds of material in the one structure.

Our learners and staff appreciate the improvements to their schools and we hope they are encouraged to view waste differently and use it creatively. The women on the construction team have told us that they will take the skills they have learned over the last several months back to their own communities, show others and to promote eco construction. Onwards!

"The best way to predict the future is to design it..."