Sustainable school for Ghana
Donation protected
There are 500 children in Abetenim, Ghana who have to worry about their secondary education because of the poor education infrastructure.
Esther is one of them:
“I am Esther Sarfo, 14 years old in Junior High School 1 in Abetenim, Ghana. I like social studies and English language. I want to be a lawyer when I grow up. My parents are farmers and they do not have money to send me away to a senior high school, pay my school fees, give me money for transportation every day or rent a room for me. Building a senior high school in Abetenim will make my wish to be a lawyer possible!”
We believe that Esther deserves a chance to make her dream come true.
We believe that all children deserve the right to education.
We are Nka Foundation, a non-profit organisation in the United States serving underserved communities in Africa. Our mission is to empower local communities by knowledge transfer through international arts and architect projects.
As our next architect project, we want to build a sustainable school for the children of Abetenim, Ghana.
How our projects contribute
We are building a network of arts villages, starting with Abetenim, Ghana. The arts village serves as a meeting and learning center for creative people from the region and all over the world. The village accommodates architects, artists volunteers and builders, who want to teach, learn and create. It is the base camp of knowledge transfer and building cultural bridges. It is a place to grow.
We challenge young architects in our annual “Earth building competition” to design and build sustainable houses from local materials, focusing on traditional earth building techniques. These buildings become a celebration of the local culture and heritage.
Earth? Why on earth?
Earth is a traditional, nontoxic, locally available building material with great insulation. It withstands earthquakes and extreme weather conditions, and keeps insects and rodents out. It’s cheap and 100% recyclable.
Despite this, it is disappearing from rural architecture, as it is looked at as the building material of the poor.
Therefore, like many other African nations, Ghana is facing an influx of expensive, environmentally damaging building materials.
This is the process that we want to reverse. Our aim is to help earth regain its well deserved reputation as an excellent building material.
Watch Helena Zarchan's video to see why earth is a key to the development of rural Ghana:
How knowledge is transferred
The winners of the competition travel to Ghana to build their own designs together with local people in the earth building workshops. They stay in the arts village for the duration of the project.
These workshops bring local people and the winners of the competition together, enabling them to learn from each other. This is where idea exchange and knowledge transfer happens.
What we have built in Abetenim so far
We have already built a few modern sustainable houses in the arts village through this project. We are now looking to expand our project and bring life changing facilities to the people of Abetenim.
This is our "Kente house team" from the competition of 2015:
They have built an innovative, sustainable workshop/house, designed to promote the re-establishment of rammed earth as a construction material while encouraging development of the local traditional weaving method, Kente weaving.
A big thank you for the photos to Angeles Hevia.
A great crowd, isn’t it?
And guess what? They have not only designed and built the houses while educating the local community, but they even raised their own funds so that they can do so. They collected most of the money to cover for the construction materials and travelling costs.
Yep. They took care of it all. It almost seems like an unrealistic undertaking, doesn’t it?
Unfortunately, funds were often insufficient, even if our organisation contributed as much as possible. This resulted in late completion of the project, lower quality building materials or delayed arrival of construction materials.
“Funds were not enough and this is the reason why the house was not completed in the scheduled time” (Giuilia Fortunato)
"We could have finished the construction before. Sometimes more funds allow a better result because it’s possible to buy better materials.” (Anna Mazzaron)
They deserve better.
This is why want to support them on their financial quest even more, and are raising funds for these guys. So that they can truly focus on what they are good at: designing and building.
Photo credits: Angeles Hevia
Donate now and help them build the next unit in the arts village, a sustainable school in Abetenim, Ghana.
Why build a school
98% of adults in Abetenim are unable to read or write due to poor education infrastructure.
Many children drop out of school and end up working on farms from a very young age because their parents are not able to pay for the tuition, accommodation and travelling fees needed for studying in another town.
So far we managed to build a Junior Secondary School and a Kindergarten, but there is more to be done. We want to build a local school that will allow children to continue their education.
This is your chance to be a part of it.
Help us build a new Senior High School in Abetenim, Ghana and change the lives of 500 local children.
Donate now, and be a part of the transformation!
How the funds will be used
All donations will be distributed among the winners of the 4th Earth Architecture Competition, organised by us, to finance their construction projects.
The competition is open to architect teams who are passionate about building sustainable and cost-efficient buildings, and are ready to show the local community how to make the most of the natural resources around them. They will design different units of the school, like classrooms, dormitories, labs and teachers’ offices.
We will select the 3 best designs and provide them with funding to help make their designs a reality. The funds will be distributed evenly between these 3 teams to finance the construction materials, the furniture and fittings of the classroom/unit they are building.
Realization
The workshops to construct the design entries in the competition will start from February 2017.
We’ve got the land, community labour, students and teachers; now we need you to help us transform our vision into a reality.
We have only one question for you.
Which cause do you care about the most?
1. Giving a chance to 500 children to transform their lives in rural Ghana.
2. Cultivation of sustainable architecture.
3. Knowledge transfer to empower underdeveloped regions.
The truth is, it doesn't matter.
Support our project, and you'll contribute to all 3 causes. Donate now!
Esther is one of them:
“I am Esther Sarfo, 14 years old in Junior High School 1 in Abetenim, Ghana. I like social studies and English language. I want to be a lawyer when I grow up. My parents are farmers and they do not have money to send me away to a senior high school, pay my school fees, give me money for transportation every day or rent a room for me. Building a senior high school in Abetenim will make my wish to be a lawyer possible!”We believe that Esther deserves a chance to make her dream come true.
We believe that all children deserve the right to education.
We are Nka Foundation, a non-profit organisation in the United States serving underserved communities in Africa. Our mission is to empower local communities by knowledge transfer through international arts and architect projects.
As our next architect project, we want to build a sustainable school for the children of Abetenim, Ghana.
How our projects contribute
We are building a network of arts villages, starting with Abetenim, Ghana. The arts village serves as a meeting and learning center for creative people from the region and all over the world. The village accommodates architects, artists volunteers and builders, who want to teach, learn and create. It is the base camp of knowledge transfer and building cultural bridges. It is a place to grow.
We challenge young architects in our annual “Earth building competition” to design and build sustainable houses from local materials, focusing on traditional earth building techniques. These buildings become a celebration of the local culture and heritage.
Earth? Why on earth?
Earth is a traditional, nontoxic, locally available building material with great insulation. It withstands earthquakes and extreme weather conditions, and keeps insects and rodents out. It’s cheap and 100% recyclable.
Despite this, it is disappearing from rural architecture, as it is looked at as the building material of the poor.
Therefore, like many other African nations, Ghana is facing an influx of expensive, environmentally damaging building materials.
This is the process that we want to reverse. Our aim is to help earth regain its well deserved reputation as an excellent building material.
Watch Helena Zarchan's video to see why earth is a key to the development of rural Ghana:
How knowledge is transferred
The winners of the competition travel to Ghana to build their own designs together with local people in the earth building workshops. They stay in the arts village for the duration of the project.
These workshops bring local people and the winners of the competition together, enabling them to learn from each other. This is where idea exchange and knowledge transfer happens.
What we have built in Abetenim so far
We have already built a few modern sustainable houses in the arts village through this project. We are now looking to expand our project and bring life changing facilities to the people of Abetenim.
This is our "Kente house team" from the competition of 2015:
They have built an innovative, sustainable workshop/house, designed to promote the re-establishment of rammed earth as a construction material while encouraging development of the local traditional weaving method, Kente weaving.
A big thank you for the photos to Angeles Hevia.A great crowd, isn’t it?
And guess what? They have not only designed and built the houses while educating the local community, but they even raised their own funds so that they can do so. They collected most of the money to cover for the construction materials and travelling costs.
Yep. They took care of it all. It almost seems like an unrealistic undertaking, doesn’t it?
Unfortunately, funds were often insufficient, even if our organisation contributed as much as possible. This resulted in late completion of the project, lower quality building materials or delayed arrival of construction materials.
“Funds were not enough and this is the reason why the house was not completed in the scheduled time” (Giuilia Fortunato)
"We could have finished the construction before. Sometimes more funds allow a better result because it’s possible to buy better materials.” (Anna Mazzaron)
They deserve better.
This is why want to support them on their financial quest even more, and are raising funds for these guys. So that they can truly focus on what they are good at: designing and building.
Photo credits: Angeles HeviaDonate now and help them build the next unit in the arts village, a sustainable school in Abetenim, Ghana.
Why build a school
98% of adults in Abetenim are unable to read or write due to poor education infrastructure.
Many children drop out of school and end up working on farms from a very young age because their parents are not able to pay for the tuition, accommodation and travelling fees needed for studying in another town.
So far we managed to build a Junior Secondary School and a Kindergarten, but there is more to be done. We want to build a local school that will allow children to continue their education.
This is your chance to be a part of it.
Help us build a new Senior High School in Abetenim, Ghana and change the lives of 500 local children.
Donate now, and be a part of the transformation!
How the funds will be used
All donations will be distributed among the winners of the 4th Earth Architecture Competition, organised by us, to finance their construction projects.
The competition is open to architect teams who are passionate about building sustainable and cost-efficient buildings, and are ready to show the local community how to make the most of the natural resources around them. They will design different units of the school, like classrooms, dormitories, labs and teachers’ offices.
We will select the 3 best designs and provide them with funding to help make their designs a reality. The funds will be distributed evenly between these 3 teams to finance the construction materials, the furniture and fittings of the classroom/unit they are building.
Realization
The workshops to construct the design entries in the competition will start from February 2017.
We’ve got the land, community labour, students and teachers; now we need you to help us transform our vision into a reality.
We have only one question for you.
Which cause do you care about the most?
1. Giving a chance to 500 children to transform their lives in rural Ghana.
2. Cultivation of sustainable architecture.
3. Knowledge transfer to empower underdeveloped regions.
The truth is, it doesn't matter.
Support our project, and you'll contribute to all 3 causes. Donate now!
Organizer
Barthosa Nkurumeh
Organizer
Oklahoma City, OK
