Project Mmwendo Bora School

PROJECT – MWENDO BORA SCHOOL

In 2014, thanks to Mwendo Bora D.G., the Mwendo Bora school project was established in Lamu under the Swiss and German leadership of Karin Howell and Susanne Preiss. Thanks to this privately run aid project, 220 children can currently attend primary school from the first to the eighth grade. The project is supported by Lonnie Howell,

the Kenyans Fuzz Dyer and Fatma Salim. The committee is completed by the Italian Francesco Rinauro and his Spanish wife Maria Parga. Maria works for the independent organization ANIDAN, which runs an orphanage and a hospital on Lamu. A solid and meaningful basis for children.

Concept 
The concept of the project is to support healthy children with all their talents and abilities in such a way that they can reach their full potential. The Mwendo Bora concept starts at kindergarten age, accompanies the children through 8 years of primary school, followed by 4 years of secondary school, in order to open a perspective for the future. This support enables the young people to study in Mombasa, Nairobi or elsewhere. In addition, the board of directors is also considering the establishment of a technical college.

New schoolconcept 
The move to the new location also creates the opportunity to introduce play based learning. This in turn is accompanied by young, well-trained specialists in the fields of education and social services. Teachers have the opportunity to participate in further training.

Our vision 
A high quality school and the effort to have a well trained staff has the goal that the school will be able to be self-sufficient one day. The project is working hard to ensure that in about five years there will be no costs that require an external financial injection.

New construction project

The school building in the old town of Lamu, which was taken over by Mwendo Bora D.G. in 2014, is not only in an unfavourable location for the 220 children, there are also monthly rental costs. Most of the children attending Mwendo Bora Primary School live outside the old town of Lamu and therefore have to walk a long way every day. Therefore, the desire arose to build their own school, which is located in the heart of the island and is therefore easily accessible for all children. The vision was to create a place that would not only offer students and teachers enough space for creative teaching, but would also be an oasis of activity outside the classroom. The main objectives of the new school are the promotion of knowledge, health care and above all creative and meaningful leisure activities with a view to future self-sufficiency.

Nico Jeuch, a young architect from Zurich, has also spent several months in Lamu over the past two years working with local architects and contractors to find the best possible solution for a construction project. His aim was to create a school that could be built as simply as possible using as many local materials as possible, and which could be expanded at any time. With the newly acquired knowledge, Nico created the building project “Mango Tree”. The project convinces by its simple construction, its spacious rooms and especially by the roof construction. It allows enough light to enter the classroom and prevents the heat from accumulating. And this is exactly what convinced Mwendo Bora D.G. to join forces with the young architect to realize the project.

Construction phase 1
After receiving the building permit in the summer of 2019, the construction project is about to begin. A primary school for 360 pupils will be built. In addition to two school wings with 14 classrooms, the school complex includes a Office building, a separate kitchen with dining room, a craft and factory building, a small library, toilet facilities, a basketball court, a vegetable and fruit garden as well as a goat herd and a henhouse. To ensure that the local builders meet the desired quality standards, a sample classroom with an outdoor area was first built in the summer. Nico Jeuch, the architect, supervised this phase on site

to ensure the desired quality and also to arrange the location of the first building in the right place. With success, some delay and, above all, countless discussions about the desired quality standard, the sample classroom has now been completed and the construction of the remaining buildings has begun. The primary goal is to replace the existing school with the new one within the shortest possible time. For this purpose, the toilets and the kitchen with the dining area have to be built in addition to the classrooms.

The current construction status can be followed in our BLOG.

PROJECT – MWENDO BORA SCHOOL

Further information and updates on Mwendo Bora D.G. can be found at:

www.mwendobora.org

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