Build a Safe Place to Deliver Youth Programs

Dear friends,

Thanks to your generousity, we are now well on our way to rebuilding our facility to make it safe and stable. At the start of the year, we were very excited to receive a project grant from the kind people behing the Project Solution (www.theprojectsolution.org).  This support, in combination with your own, allowed us to launch our project.  We began by dismantling the structure of our old centre.  It was constructed of timber and iron-sheeting and was in very poor shape due to wear and erosion.  We procured the supplies needed to lay new foundation, including sand, ballast and stones, and retained a mason and three labourers for the construction work.  We are happy to report that we have now completed the underground foundation walls that will support the building.  The next step is to set the house, fill in the remaining part of the floors and construct new walls.

One unforseen challenge for us in this project is that we had to retain three labourers as we were not able to recruit volunteers to participate in the rebuilding as planned.  Because youth here depend on casual work to put food on the table, they told us that, as much as they wish to help, it is not possible to commit to a project like this that would require their involvement for a few months.  This speaks to the serious difficulties that youth here face to meet even their most basic of needs.