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Elevate Emmaus
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Which role can architecture have in slum development?
Obunga is a slum in the northwest part of Kisumu, Kenya. Most of the people here are young men and women with little education that live with less than one euro a day.
Emmaus Blessed School host 300 children, some of them orphans, with a kindergarten and classes from grade 1 to 8.
The immediate concerns are the lack of space and furniture for the 300 pupils that currently attend the school and the safety of their school environment.
The lack of money coming into the school seem to be the largest issue.
The project consists of a two-story building. The additional floor space left behind will benefit the students as they will have a new larger classroom. The progressive development plan would allow for Emmaus school to continue to expand in a controlled manner. By having a precedent building on-site for their need to go higher could potentially benefit future NGO/benefactors/stakeholders to invest in a safe structure for the school which can be adapted.
Through a crowdfunding campaign, we manage to self-build the new space in four weeks thanks to the help of the orphans children of the school and local workers.
This what we did
and a lot of children
Express delivery
We started with the demolition, the guys from Zingira Community craft were the first helping us
but also the hairdressers closed to the school...
Digging the holes for the foundations
Charles fixed all the different wood panels to make the floor with the children
Rising the heavy pillars with Viktor our welder
Will the structure work?
A mattress industry gifted a huge amount of pallets that we reused for the facades
Wilson, the father of one of the children, made the roof almost alone
The orphans and our new welder John were really working tirelessly
The children started to make the facade as they preferred
Our team with the orphans
The lessons already started and the children are enjoying the new spaces
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