We are excited to report that construction of the new classrooms at Kamaila School has started thanks to the support of our corporate partners BGL.
The Government supported school was founded in 1978 and has 20 teachers and over 1,000 children. There are just eight classrooms, four of which have been condemned as unsafe. This posed a looming crisis at an already overcrowded school.
Work has now started on their new classroom block. In addition, new latrines will be built to replace the old block which is unhygienic and unsuitable. Solar power will be installed which means that the classrooms can be used by the community in the evenings.
The community at Kamaila has been very involved in helping to make Stabilised Soil Bricks (SSB) which are being used in the construction. These blocks are made on site from earth mixed with a small amount of cement and then compacted by a hand-powered machine.
Community involvement is key part of this process and local people around the village have been helping to prepare the earth, process the blocks and stack them to dry. All our building projects belong to the local community. Their engagement and input is vital and helps to give them control, ownership and pride.
As part of the project, we are training 23 young people from Kamaila to be builders. They are gaining real, on-the-job experience working on a project that will directly benefit their families and the local community.
The trainees, 5 females and 18 male, have been involved in laying the foundations of the classrooms and have recently started on the construction of the walls.
One of the trainees is Evelyn who has three children, two of which are at Kamaila School. Evelyn never thought she could learn building skills as she thought that these skills were just for men. However she highlighted that things are changing and was encouraged by other women taking up roles traditionally for men. Evelyn said that her husband supported her in applying for the training so that they could both contribute financially to help educate their children.
We look forward to sharing more news and updates from Kamaila as the project progresses.
