Dear NABUUR Volunteers.

Today it's International Volunteer Day.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your dedication and invaluable support towards finding solutions.

The time and energy put forth into your volunteering work really make life changing differences for other people.

As NABUUR grows we are honored to work with passionate volunteers such as yourself, as you are the ones who make it happen.

NABUUR and all those involved celebrate you today, and we look forward to a long and continued collaboration.

It couldn't be done without you.

Warm regards,

Siegfried Woldhek

CEO NABUUR.com

Hi Stephen

Yes - this is one of the first things I would like to look at and get sorted - without a plot we can't plan anything successfully until it's secured.

Chrissie :-)

Dear chrissie,
Thank you for your question to start with, pressently we dot own aplot where we can build our school.the one we are using is very small (8 by 6)metres and we dont own it.we were given by one of our community member to use it temporary and once we get our own we shall have the ligality of using it without getting permission from anybody .Probably chrissie, the idea of getting aplot should be looked at or what do you say?
Stephen.

Hi All!

Last call for any ideas that YOU have to make our project success. I will be closing this action down tomorrow evening (BST) and put together a result for all to see.

Don't worry if you miss this deadline - if you have any ideas after this time, why not head over to social talk and add them there?

Chrissie :-)

Hi Stephen

Quick question for you - I'm sure this has already been covered but I'd just like to double check - do you have a plot of land that we can build on? If so, do we need building permission - if so - who do we get permission from? Is there a cost involved?

As I said previously, I'm sure that this has already been thought about and covered before coming to NABUUR - just thought we'd better clarify the postion.

Kind Regards

Chrissie :-)

Adhengo,

I totally agree with Stephen - thanks ever so much for your brilliant contribution - I'm sure it will help us when the time comes to right the proposal!

Thanks for sharing!

Chrissie :-)

Dear adhengo,
Thank you for your input on how to write a funding proposal .Ithink we will use it when time comes of writing afunding proposal.

Dear Matopeni villagers,

Herein find a guide to writting a proposal that can assist in building more classrooms...

regards

Adhengo on Proposals.pdf

Dear all neighbuors
Over the past few years, the number of orphans ,destitute and vulnerable children has increased substantially and no government school is build to serve the poor and disadvantaged in this village .This is why Boston self help group was formed and initiated a centre called Boston children centre to ensure well being and improve the quality life of the children of Matopeni through better Education .How those children fare as a whole depends not only on their access to Education but also on the satisfaction of their basic needs The centre provides food to the needy orphans with no one to turn to or no where to go.The centre relies heavily on individuals contribution to further its mission of nurturing the orphans .Due to depreciating economy being experienced in Kenya the frequency of hunger and malnutrition amongst children is noticed. The centre seen first hand that no child can succeed in education process without proper nourishment, for this reason feeding program is in place. These children have a problem gaining shelter, food Education and clothing amongst other basic needs. To answer your question lynely, Desks, learning materials and other scholastic materials are urgently needed as we work on the future of the centre. This will help us maintain educational standards for this needy pupils AND SERVE THEM BETTER.Again cement bricks and all building materials are available on local market., plumbing services will be done becouse pressently we are using a pit latrine
God bless you all
Stephen

Hi Lynley

Some very good questions. :-)

Great to see those ideas coming through and things we will most definitely be looking at in future actions.

Look at this thread to contribute your suggestions, thoughts and ideas. These will be the basis of some of our future actions - don't worry there is a method to my madness and will be discussed at length very shortly! ;-)

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Chrissie :-)

Re building materials - how available is the cement and bricks, plus the roofing material Stephen?

Is there plumbing that could be done?
Is there electricity available?
are these things we should also be considering to make the classrooms functional?

Also, to build functional classrooms, desks, blackboards and educational materials would also be required.

Is there also a need to provide shelter for some of the children who do not have homes? They would surely then require adequate clothing and cooking facilities?

I have no idea about building or specifications, however, in order to build classrooms ready to function (ie functional) these issues probably need to be considered. How functional are the existing structures??

Cheers
Lynley

Ayesha,

Thanks for your observations - we'll be looking at this in a future action but it's great to have this in our ideas section - this is just the sort of thing Stephen and I have been looking for! :-)

I'm really glad you've already given this part some thought - don't lose it - we'll be starting another action in a few weeks time to potentially start to think about these things - I would really welcome your ideas on building specs there. Keep checking back!

Chrissie :-)

Hello-

Hopefully, I am not rushing ahead - but I think if we know what are basic requirements are, we can modify them per the examples we are researching and start to identify limitations.

I started thinking about numbers and area requirements. This is my first try, please feel free to adjust as I do not have a very good basis for these assumptions:

1. 800 students every year that will be attend Matopeni School

2. Each classroom should hold be able to hold a maximum of 20 students (any teachers to confirm this is a realistic number??), therefore 40 classes required

3. Assume each class is approximately 100 square meters (see http://www.coe.uga.edu/sdpl/research/territoriality.html)

4. Floor space for classes only is 4,000 square meters, which is approximately 1 acre

5. Other items requiring space that will need to be evaluated are: bathrooms (perhaps Lynley could size for us), playground, storage, teacher's room, library, etc.
Without calculating these specifically, I estimate approx. 2 acres will be required for the school, less if it is a 2-story structure.

I'm really interested to hear any thoughts on this.

Thank you.
Ayesha

Dear neighbours
Am glad to inform you the physical environment of Matopeni village(school).The place is very sloppy (Valley) full of stones (rocks) .Many are a time the temporary structure we use as class rooms is threatened to be washed away by rainy water (running rainy water).For this case in order to come up with a strong and durable building to be used as class rooms we have to use the following local materials
1. Floor:-cement ,gravel or hardcore and sand.
2. Walls :-blocks or bricks well finished with mixture of cement and sand then painted.
3. Roof:-Timber, iron sheets or tiles and nails
4. Ceiling board :-Plywood plus painting.
If we can came up with classrooms builded using such local materials then our school building will last longer
Regards,
Stephen .

Hi Lynley!

First and foremost, welcome to Motepeni! You a are a great additional to our team so welcome on board! :-)

I think you've raised some very good points and ones that should and will be looked into further when we're looking to build the building. This is why the communities at NABUUR are so great - there are so many of us from different backgrounds that bring a lot of different angles into a project. Lynley, this angle is one I hadn't thought about properly, and is something htat needs to addressed, so a very big thank you!

Have a good weekend all!

Chrissie :-)