Bygget fortlöper enligt planerna och två av fyra hus har redan fått sisal poles monterade. Bakom sisal poles monteras det myggnät samt en plåtskiva som hindrar regnvatten att at ta sig in mellan plåttaket och undertaket. Som förberedelse för detta arbete har även ringbeam putsats och fått fina skarpa kanter och hörn. I nästa fas kommer de resterande två husen täckas med sisal poles och därefter kommer även arbetet med slurry-undertaket påbörjas.
Volontärer sökes för finansiering
Har du, eller någon du känner, idéer för att samla pengar till den fortsatta byggfasen av Econef Barncenter? Vi söker dig som är intresserad av att ta kontakt med potentiella sponsorer och anordna fundraising aktiviteter för att dra in pengar till Econef. Efter jul fortsätter bygget och vi hoppas på att barnen kommer kunna flytta in så snart som möjligt. Ju fler vi är som hjälps åt, desto snabbare kommer det gå. Är du intresserad – kontakta frida(at)asante.se
Denna vecka sätter arbetet med innertak och sisal poles igång. Det kan ske tack vare vårt senaste event som gjorde detta ekonomiskt möjligt. Tack igen till alla som medverkade och kom!
Econef Sverige har inga volontärer på plats utan detta steg sköts av Econef Tanzanias grundare Caroline och anställda på plats. Med undantag för ett par mindre detaljer kommer arbetet att utföras på samma sätt, med samma resultat, som när det gjordes för Baobabhuset. Caroline har naturligvis löpande kontakt med Econef Sverige under byggets gång.
Caroline har även lovat att ta bilder under processen som vi kan lägga upp på bloggen. Vi ser mycket fram emot att få följa processen!
Nästa steg, vilket vi hoppas kunna ta under första kvartalet nästa år, blir rörsystem, dörrar och fönster. När vi kan börja beror på när vi har fått in tillräckligt mycket pengar. Om vi alla hjälps åt är vi säkra på att det kommer att gå!
Tack till alla som kom och delade denna afton med Econef. Vi samlade totalt in drygt 50 000:-, en bra slant för att komma vidare med bygget av Econefs nya barncenter, och många visade stort intresse för Econef och vårt arbete. Ett särskilt tack till Ettelva, Mer och Whispr group som var med och arrangerade och lånade ut sina vackra lokaler, till Aveqia för den goda tanzaniska kycklinggrytan, Chocochili för den stämningsfulla musiken, alla sponsorer: Weleda, Grönsakshallen, Bonnierfakta, Tingstad, Palla must, Nya Carnegiebryggeriet, Saltå Kvarn, Liljebergs, Nordic Light Hotel, Nordic Choise Hotel och Punk Royale, samt alla underbara volontärer som hjälpte till under kvällen.
Fortsätt gärna att sprida information om hur era vänner och kollegor kan vara med och stötta Econef: http://econef.org/donera/
Och tipsa gärna om våra paket för företagssamarbeten: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0Wf7HApteMgOVhwZUNZWEJWUTA
Vi ser fram emot att träffa er alla snart igen på nästa insamlingskväll, och sedan i Tanzania när det nya barncentret står klart!
With Emelie travelling home, we (Linda and David) had one last week to spend at the project site. During the week we had time to finalise some of the planning work from the previous weeks: outlining the budget, collecting proforma invoices, and checking the material at the supplier sites.
Going over the plumbing drawings, one last issue we had to think about was how the heavy galvanised pipes were to be mounted to the ring beam, as well as to the facades. On the Baobab house the pipes had simply been put on top of the ring beam, but for the children’s centre this would have to be solved in a different way.
Together with Caroline and Maxi we therefore went to Arusha to enquire about pipe mounting solutions at a few metal industries. We discussed and sketched quite a few different solutions, but finally ended up with a preferred solution (considering construction and budget), which we added to the planned plumbing budget.
Discussing how to mount the pipes to the building facades
In addition to this we also spent some time at a sisal wood retailer, to understand how much wood would be needed for the construction. We realized that the irregular shape of the sisal wood would only enable us to use approximately 2.5 m of each bought pole as the upper part is naturally crooked. Consequently, we had to adjust the sisal pole budget. We also discussed ways of creating an inspection door within the sisal wood façade, to allow for roof inspection in the children’s centre.
At the sisal wood retailer
Apart from planning and budgeting, we had some time to do some hands-on work on our own: painting the steel shoes of the roof. The trusses of the roof were mounted onto the ring beam with steel shoes, which were produced on demand out of an untreated steel plate. Therefore, the steel shoes had to be painted with red oxide paint in order to protect them from environmental degradation. So with some paint left over from previous volunteers, and with fresh thinner bought from Arusha, we started to climb up and down the children’s centre, to paint all steel shoes. With four houses, and at least two applications needed, there was quite some painting work to be done!
Painting the steel shoes
With planning and painting all done, we had reached our final day at the project site. After that, we couldn’t leave Tanzania without scaling the beautiful Mt. Kilimanjaro! After a successful trek, we headed back home, full of wonderful memories from beautiful Tanzania and the wonderful Econef site!
Bye bye Baobab!
Linda and David
10 oktober hålls nästa Econefevenemang- Business for Hope.
Det finns fortfarande några platser kvar till denna kväll med mat, dryck, mingel och information om Econefs senaste framsteg, och vad som är kvar att göra innan barnen kan flytta in. Det är inte för sent att o.s.a än, ta med dig en vän eller kollega och kom!
Läs inbjudan för mer information om kvällen och hur du osar: business-for-hope-1
Mambo!
My Tanzanian summer has come to an end. Before I (Emelie) speak about the building process, I have to speak of the place. Inevitable, my heart has made space for new images, experiences. The Econef land is one of the most beautiful sites I have ever visited, been invited to. Everything regarding life there is as local as it gets and everything regarding life there contributes, as a unit part of the whole, working together for development. This is a place where one feel completely aware of what it means to be part of the processes that modern day life demands, what it takes from the world for a single persons continuance. Here you live remote, you eat what you can grow, you use the water that the sky is releasing, the electricity that the sun provides you with; limited and with the same uncertainty as the weather.
Mt. Kilimanjaro in our backyard
The about-to-be-roof
Black birds and butteryellow sunflower fields
The Baobab house and the Econef Children’s center lies softly in the hard and compact landscape, the bricks are as copper-red like the dusty grounds. Behind us the ground pushes up, forming a mount and we on the foot of the hill. In front us the ground pushes up even further, forming a mountain there in our backyard; Mt Kilimanjaro purple in the afternoon light. This is a enigmatic place, a serene place and the home to all magical skies.
Morning sky
Afternoon sky
When Maxi, Emil and Felix picked me up with the van on the airport early this july I remembered that I felt as if we drove straight out in the middle of no mans land through cornfields reaching up ready to be harvested. It was in the middle of the night and when I woke up that first morning all of the Econef land was in full lush flourish; bougainvillea bright magenta, white blue red hibiscus, banana palm trees, heavy green stones of watermelons hiding in the bushes, sweet red mini tomatoes green crispy tomatoes, a pineapple tree about the come up, a passion fruit tree, beans left out to dry on the ground, avocado trees. If one is persistent and understanding and passionate, driven. Hard working. This project can in the future statute an example for a permaculture; the fertile clay ground together with the farm animals, the solar electricity and rain water collecting. And us, humans, together in harmony as a self-sufficient unit of nature, animals and us. On equal premises.
Full moon and harvest and crescent moon
When Emil and Felix left the site to go back to Sweden I together with the builders continued the work with the roof. I was invited to stay with Caroline and the kids over at the old orphanage, and every work day we travelled to the site by car and picked up the building crew on the way. People we work with are specialized on a particular kind of handicraft. Hussein and I drilled holes in the finished trusses to connect them with metal bolts while Lucas building team then lifted the heavy trusses on its right place on the roofs, individually numbered and fitted to adjust the previous differences with the uneven reinforcement bars in the ring beam. Then to make them rest evenly in the steel shoes a wood chisel was used to fit the bolts of the steel shoes into the trusses. Maxi, Maxi and Valerian where working together to soak the final pieces of wood in termite pesticide, wood that after drying was used for longitudinal beams, fisher boards and gutter plank. These the builders mounted symmetrically by using their own tricks, simple things such as strings.
Lucas building team magically mounting trusses
Heavy trusses and balance acts
Econef stands for much more than a being a orphanage, I and the kids was during this time shareing space with a group of american teenagers. They where part of Carolines project in what the ”C” in Econef stands for; community. They lived with Econef for almost a month, and their schedule was carefully arranged by Caroline as to make sure that they got to experience and understand true Tanzanian culture, and Caroline on the other hand was strengthening her own community. They lived with the Masaai’s, they visited people working with permaculture, they helped out on Econef site, spent time with the kids, went to see the nationalparks and together we all celebrated 4th of july. In some ways this was a two-way share of culture, backgrounds and stories.
Celebration at site
Dance, dance, dance
In the second week of july Linda and David arrived and I moved back together with my fellow volunteer mates in the Baobab house. And by the time of their arrival the pace of the building process slowed down leaving only two things left in order to do to fully complete the task of ”let there be roof”; mounting the gutter and lifting the corrugated steel sheets on its places. To be able to use government electricity we had to use long extension cords running across the fields to fuel the drill with power, with which the gutter team was drilling holes in the already bent sheets of gutter metal. The bent sheets, about a meter long, was being pieced together with waterproof glue and bolts. Each piece was individually bent to create an inclination for the rain water to flow. However one of the pieces of gutter metal was by mistake bent in the mirrored way and we had to rearrange them in order to keep the inclination. Working against the darkness that hit us like a light switch at seven fifteen, the final test of pouring water to make sure there was no leakage was left for the following day.
Go go go gutter!
Fredric!
Corrugated steel sheet up up up!
Linda, David and I together with the gutter team poured water in the gutters to stage a downfall and while it was not leaking on one of the houses, the other one was. And meanwhile the leakage was being sealed the roof team was back at site, carrying up the red corrugated steel sheets from the storage, preparing for the final work. With the 6 meter long steel sheets lying in a pile next to us, we sat together in a ring threading seals on the nails. The long side of the roof was being used as a lever to get the sheets up. As smoothly as something can go the two houses was quickly being covered with red lids and I was honored to put the final nail in place. There are now roof!
Voilá!
What amazes me after a summer here is how many different professions that fit in here; that can contribute, give and learn. Architects, engineers, agronomists, farmers, gardeners, teachers and all you who share interest in working towards a sustainable future. Wow, imagine that! What a project to be welcomed into with open arms.
Asante!
Emelie, Linda and David
Jambo!
Our (Emil and Felix) arrival in Tanzania started quite interesting in the middle of the night. Due to a misunderstanding we took a taxi to Leganga instead of Kingori,
and aimlessly drove around on the bumpy dirt roads unable to find neither the Baobab house nor Econef. When we finally arrived at the Baobab house the following day, we were greeted by the charming and hungry house cats Tiffany and Dolores. What a peaceful site to build an orphanage, resting in a sunflower field between the breathtaking Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru. Heaven on earth!
When we’d gotten accustomed to the place we started with the calculations for material costs. We needed over 250 pieces of wood, storm drains, nails, corrogated metal sheets etc to build the roofs for the two remaning houses.
mama Caroline and Emil at the building site
Next step was to visit different manufacturers in Arusha town to check and bargain down the prices, so that we could send a cost estimate to Pilvi in Sweden. Luckily for us, we were accompanied by our sweet host Mama Caroline, who is also the head of Econef Tanzania. A couple of days later when the money arrived Emelie also arrived, the third volonteer to join the project. We then went back to Arusha to buy the material. Emil went to the timber yard and Felix and Emelie went to the welder. It took about three to four days to prepare the material, which included planing (hyvling) of the wood and metal cutting. 
tireless planing of around 250 wood pieces
Some of the suppliers didn’t deliver the promised material on time, so the process got prolonged. Finally all the material was purchased and the transport to the building site began.
With all the wood at the site, we had to impregnate it with thermite pesticide. This was easier said than done, due to a constantly leaking plastic sheet. Now it was time to build the actual trusses. Halfway through, we realized that some of the beams needed to be individually measured to fit into the steel shoes properly. This took some time to get right, but soon all the trusses are completed thanks to a hard-working construction team.
It sounds that we’ve done nothing but working since we got here but that’s not really the case, so what else have we done?
the majestic Ngorongoro national park
On sundays most people in Tanzania go to church and we can get some time off. We’ve been on safari in Ngorongoro Crater National Park. This was an unreal experience for all of us.We saw a lion eating on a buffalo while beeing surrounded by hyenas.We saw Simba and Nala making love in the bushes. We saw elephants, antilopes, rhino, hippos and zebras, all running free in the circle of life.
a cute couple
Yesterday we also took some time of to celebrate swedish midsummer with all the children. Emelie made cakes and meatballs and one of the teachers from the orphanage made some local food. We played with the children all day and at the end they all lined up as a choir and gave us what must have been one of the best performances of all time. They gave us a five minute ABBA-medley mixed with local songs, dancing and laughter at the same time.
an amazing performance by all the Econef kids and teens
An emotional and beatiful moment! When they all left they all came up to us and gave us a hug while saying ”A hug is great gift”.
Kwaheri
Emil, Felix And Emelie
Ett stort tack till bleck arkitekter och Intelleqt som är Econefs nya företagspartners! Ert stöd betyder otroligt mycket för Econef och tar oss ett steg närmare målet att ge våra sexton barn ett nytt hem.
Är du intresserad av att bli företagspartner till Econef? Kontakta info(at)econef.org Tillsammans kan vi förändra världen till det bättre!
Vi vill också ge er en uppdatering från bygget. Taken för två av de fyra byggnaderna i det nya barnhemmet är nu klara. Nya byggvolontärer åker till siten i början på juni då vi planerar att färdigställa taken för de två resterande husen och göra mindre reparationer i baobabhuset.
Tack till alla er som stödjer och följer Econefs arbete!
Preparations has been many and after several days treating the wood with anti-termite the roof construction has begun.
To start, we needed a perfect prototyp truss to assist in the building of the rest ones. This since the workers prefer taking measurements from a built object rather than using drawings. The first truss made needed some improvements in detailing, so we stayed out in the dark to to finish, lighting the workshop with solar lamps and torches in order to have a new one ready before the building team would come back the next morning.
This second prototype was perfect and the production of the trusses for two of the houses is running. Ericis team have got help from more people in order to speed up the process, with the goal too finish the first roof this week while there are still volunteers one site. The remaining two will start as soon as the economical situation allows.
Erici, Chirstian and Peter taking down the form for the second level of the tower. A work that has been paused since the roofing needs to be finished.
Last saturday we visited the children in their current home and brought paper, clay and colored pens. Playing together, drawing and folding paper planes, as well as seeing them taking care of each other, joking and laughing was very enjoyable. It is nice to spend time with the future users of the building we are making.
In the new children centre, we can picture one of their favorite spaces to be the built in sofas in the study room; just as one of ours is the sofa on the terrass of the Baobab House. The sofas are in a shaded place, protected from rain and will be comfortable with pillows – giving the kids a nice space to both study and play.
Imanuel, Ebeneza and Clinton
Hosianna, Brian, Naomi, Faradja and Maria
Rajabou and Clinton drawing while Faradja sits in the back rinsing rice
Future photographer?
Gathered in the baobab sofa today are seven people. Except for Lydia and Karin there are the volunteering landscape architects Anna, Julia, Hanne and waste water engineer Johanna with her son Ragnar, that pays Econef a vist of for ten days. They are here to work with an ecological grey water system and designing the court yards.
One thing that we find beautiful in this project is how many people that are involved and contribute in different ways. Econef children center is a real collective act, where all: from the donators to architects, volunteers and others spreading the word are connected in the work of creating a better home for the children.
Kwaheri!
Lydia and Karin