Architect’s General Plan Unveiled at Board Meeting

The architect’s general plan for our new “green” education center was unveiled and finalized April 24, 2010, at a fundraiser and board meeting in Boston. The project will cost about $200,000.

The final design and plan reflects the recommendations the Jitegemee Board of Directors and the volunteer architects from the Washington, D.C., chapter of Architects for Humanity made in December 2009 to the planning committee in Machakos, Kenya, along with the planning committee’s subsequent recommendations.

The planning committee is a group of students, teachers and parents who formed a committee during the architects’ visit to Kenya in August 2009.  During the visit, the committee members joined the architects and board members on a trip to see examples of other buildings and affordable, environmentally sustainable designs in Kenya. We learned how the roof can be designed to harvest water (a very important resource in Machakos, which is known for its lack of rain) and how buildings can be designed to keep cool without air conditioning. We even saw toilets that composted human waste into fertilizer, another pretty simple but powerful technology that improves the crop harvest.

If we can raise $90,000 by the summer, we can break ground on our new education center this fall. The planning committee will pick and manage the architectural team and contractor.