School renovation for 1,700 children in Nigeria

Project puRE water for life

Our currently largest implementation project is in Nigeria. With the construction of a water plant to provide 6 million liters of purified drinking water per year, we will be able to provide clean water for around 5,000 people. A big step towards health care and prevention of diseases.

Unfortunately, we cannot quite keep to our schedule. Due to the global political situation (delays in production, shortage of containers), the provision and loading of our photovoltaic system has been delayed by two months. On November 4th, however, the solar package from the Phaesun company could be loaded into the container. We hope that the container will arrive safely at our construction site in Afikpo North in December.

The construction of the bottling hall will also keep us busy until December. The rainy season and rising material costs will lead to increased construction costs, which we can still absorb in terms of costs. The flat roof of the hall, on which the PV system will then be installed, has just been concreted.

We now expect the plant to go into operation at the beginning of the second quarter of 2023 and will continue to report.

Construction of toilet facilities and school kitchen

There’s a lot going on in Nigeria. In addition to the large water project, two other construction projects are underway at the “Amuro/Mgbom Primary and Secondary” school: the construction of two toilet blocks and the construction of a school kitchen.
We have to accept certain delays due to the rainy season and the increasing cost of materials. We keep the costs under control by waiting for the time of year when the material (sand, cement) becomes a little cheaper again. Overall, however, the costs for building materials in Nigeria are rising, as in most other countries.

We are nearing completion of the construction of the two toilet blocks (by December of this year at the latest). It will be a blessing for the school when sanitary facilities are finally available for the 1,700 students and teachers.
When building the school kitchen, we still have to close a financial gap before we can complete the construction work. After that, a playground will be set up on the school grounds.

The continuous daily work in emergency medical aid and family care should also be mentioned. We will draw more attention to this topic in the coming year.

Thank you so much for your outstanding contribution to make our projects happen.

Finally, the time has come: On May 28, 2022, the renovation of the U-Block of the Amuro/Mgbom school was completed and handed over to the school management in a ceremonial opening. 

Mrs. Nwakaego Oti, Senior Principal of Amuro/Mgbom Community Secondary School Afikpo, is very pleased with the beautiful new building with new classrooms and thanks us very much for taking the next step after providing the water supply on the school campus.

The renovation of the U-Block has given the school eight additional classrooms, most of which were not usable before the renovation. This in turn relieves the other buildings and the partly oversized occupancy of the other classrooms. The school children are very happy.

With the completion, donated tables and chairs as well as school blackboards, which were delivered from Germany by container, can also be used in the classrooms. 

What has been discarded in our schools is regarded as high-quality school equipment at this school. At the same time, other measures are being taken. On the one hand, a new school kitchen will be built, and then sanitary facilities will be constructed, which do not exist at the moment. These measures will be completed this year. 

We would like to thank our project partner Pastor Richard Awah from the Holyrock Mountain of Light Church for the excellent cooperation and his great commitment during the construction phase. We will also continue the other renovation projects at the school with him, which probably will last more than five years.

And above all, we would like to thank all our donors for their great financial support. Without our loyal donor base, our projects would not be possible.

Good news at the end: We launched another project close to the school area. We will produce pure water for about 5,000 people in the Community. We will report about this new project soon.

After a construction period of 8-9 months, the time has come: the largest and most dilapidated building of the “Amuro-Mgbom Primary and Secondary School” will be completed shortly. The construction work will end in the course of April and then the students can move into the “new” building. A big milestone for the school, but also for us.

Dismantling work began on July 16, 2021. The soil conditions posed a particular challenge. We found that the reason the building broke and fell apart was the problematic soil conditions. The entire subsoil is not stable because it is clay soil.
For this reason, we erected stronger pillars with more concrete reinforcement than planned and connected the pillars with concrete. Along the roof we used concrete parapets instead of wood as this is much more durable. In some cases, double sustaining walls were used and the intermediate areas were filled with concrete.

The stone blocks for the renovation were made manually because the material is better and cheaper. With these stones, new walls were erected or parts of the wall that were still functional were added.

After completion of the masonry work in November 2021, work began on the roof truss and then the roof was covered with zinc sheet.

During the interior work, cable pipes were laid, distributors and electrical connections were installed. Although there is currently no electricity at the school, all preparations have been made. The ceiling panels were then installed as an intermediate ceiling to reduce the outside heat.

As a result, the workers installed the window grilles and doors. The walls are currently being plastered inside and out, floor tiles are being laid and everything is being painted.

All activities will be completed by the end of April. The entire renovation will cost almost 45,000 USD. There is a small increase in cost of around 5,000 USD for the improved construction measures mentioned above, but the building is now in first class condition.

In the next report we will show what the school building looks like in operation. The children, teachers and we are really looking forward to it.

Once the U-Block work is completed we will start building the sanitary facilities.

Thank you all for your outstanding support, which makes this progress possible.

In July 2021 we started renovating the 4300 sqft. “U-Block”. It will be the largest single construction project in the entire ten-building school complex. We expect total costs of approx. USD 42,000 for building renovation, roof, doors and windows, plastering, painting and tiling the floors.

What has been achieved so far?

The masonry work required for the basic renovation of the building has now been almost completely done, such as

• the dismantling of the broken roofs
• a partial excavation and creation of a new foundation
• the dismantling of the walls with strong cracks, exterior and interior walls partially rebuild or renovate
• the creation and pouring of the columns with steel containers
• creation of the connections of the pillars with a concreted ledge as part of the foundation
• concreting of the roof parapet

What about the costs?

We will have some additional costs of around USD 3,200 for various good reasons for the masonry work:

• During the construction phase, we decided that we would be concreting a parapet on the walls above as a much better stabilization for the roof.
• We have additional costs for reinforcing iron for two reasons: Increased prices (global price increase in the steel sector) and our decision to build more stable pillars. At the beginning of the construction work we could see on another building after a storm (in which parts of a roof were destroyed) how important these two measures are (parapet and stronger pillars for support).
• We will have higher expenses in terms of labor costs because of additional work for the reasons mentioned above.

What’s coming up soon?

The new roof is then erected on the relevant parts of the building; windows and doors are produced in parallel. The walls are then plastered. If all goes well, the work should be completed in the 1st or 2nd quarter of 2022.

The completion of this school building will be a significant relief for the high number of students as we can provide several additional classrooms. Today, due to lack of space, up to 300 students from several classes are taught in one classroom.

Thank you so much for your support.You can make it happen.

Please watch a 10 minute video what we accomplished so far. See LINK below.

Links:

• 10-minute Video of our achievements so far in Nigeria

After completing all construction activities on the well and the water supply on the school area for the students, teachers and the kitchen, we concentrated on the planning and financing of the renovation of the first dilapidated school building (the so called U-Block) with approx. 4,000 square feet of floor space.

The condition of the building is very bad, and a lot of construction work is required. The implementation of the measures began on July 10, 2021, and will proceed as follows:

• Purchase of the essential materials for the first phase: sand, stones, cement, iron rods, wood for the construction of the doors and windows.
• Selection of the construction company and workers and start of construction.
• Dismantling of the roof, digging the foundation, demolishing all dilapidated walls, laying of the new foundation, pouring the columns and pillars, connecting the foundation with suspended concrete beams, as the nature of the soil causes cracks in the walls. Most of the concreting and masonry work will then be done.
• At the same time, the doors and windows will be built.
• The second phase mainly consists of the work on the roof and the ceilings. Before plastering, the wiring of the electrical system follows. There is currently no electricity, but preparations are already being made for future use. The last step is tiling the floors, installing doors and windows, painting and completing the electrical installations.

Wind and rain damaged the roof of another building, which was repaired at short notice. In the first phase of the renovation, the roof and the dilapidated walls will be dismantled. A solid foundation is then created so that the walls do not burst again. The foundation is the big problem of all buildings because of the soft soil and the simple old buildings.

The soil texture at the school is very poor for construction work. The soil is not stable. When it rains, the soil increases in volume and expands. During the dry season it contracts and shrinks. The instability of the terrain causes the walls of the buildings in the school to crack.

The site engineer now concretes the pillars first and then creates concrete beams from the ground level that will chain the pillars together. On these concrete beams, the blocks are raised up to the lintel level and then another beam is created at roof level. The structure is supported on the floor beams and are filled with laterite down to the foundation. The hardened laterite is a typical construction material in this area.

The costs for the renovation of the U-block amount to approx. USD 40,000. Completion of the work is planned for the end of 2021.