Finally Darfur! December 2009
2009 culminated in our long awaited building in Darfur, IDP training, and the completion of the Khartoum dome. After several tries in Khartoum, we were rewarded with help from some local builders who grasped the vision of using low cost materials to help the people to rebuild their destroyed homes. In December, we gave three lectures to community groups and higher learning institutions that resulted in several donors contributing material and workers to complete the Khartoum dome. We also reconnected with some of the engineering students from our 2007 class who are now thoroughly trained and have skills that will enable them to get jobs. Hooman Fazly, one of Calearth's most experienced architects, led the Khartoum and Darfur projects - making for an extremely successful mission. Our local Darfur partners - AFAG Organization for Peace and Development, and the FAO - helped us set up a workshop hosted by the Technical College of South Darfur. Several small contractors from Darfur joined ten IDPs from Kalma camp and 25 engineering students in the class taught by Mr. Fazly - and completed a small house in just 7 days. The contractors, including one from the South, were our most attentive students and the class was incredibly empowering for the IDPs! (see 2010 newsletters for pictures) THANK YOU all for making this happen !! Next project 2010: clinic in South Darfur! $30,000
Clinic: South Sudan - Tonj, Spring 2009
One of our incredible volunteer engineers Ted, who last worked on the Khartoum teaching dome, recently took Nader's Khalili's building techniques to the South of the Sudan with some support from ASP/HS4S and an NGO working in the South. They succeeded so well in teaching the local population that they managed to finish up the dome on their own. With limited funds, ASP/HS4S depends on volunteer trained architects and engineers like Kate and Ted, who have both brought valuable labor and teaching to the Sudan.
Fundraising Project: Art/Architecture/Writer's Exhibition - New York City, Fall/Winter 2009
HS4S and White Box are sponsoring GOING HOME, a curated show to benefit the building of "Superadobe" fire- proof homes in Darfur, Sudan. The show aims to promote dialog among prominent artists, writers, architects and donors - on designing and rebuilding homes in Darfur. The participants will develop inspired solutions to positively impact international conversations and actions on the ground in Darfur.
Prototype Dome Workshop - Training Engineers and Supervisors for Darfur Secure Community Project: Winter/Summer/Fall 2007
HS4S's architect (Kate) taught workshops in Khartoum on the fireproof 'superadobe' technology from Calearth in January and July of 2007. HS4S introduced the technology to architects, ministers, NGOs and engineers at a seminar in Khartoum as part of the process of obtaining permits and a country license. Nader Khalili addressed the Sudanese architects by interactive video from California. Holding the introductory training seminars in the capitol and building a prototype dome facilitated training of NGO workers who could then take the technology to their rehabilitation efforts throughout the Sudan. Through this training, HS4S identified future local engineers and supervisors for the Darfur community development project. Including students from the universities as part of the project helps to ensure quality control and sustainability of the projects.
Two engineers from NMG Geotechnical, Inc. in California, Ted and Steve, volunteered ten days of their pre-Christmas holiday to continue building the dome and succeeded in doubling its size. The architecture students from the University of Khartoum were a great asset to the summer session and a delight to work with as were several of the engineers from local NGOs. The students caught the vision of building secure housing for the poor and the rainy season proved a good test of the building material in flood regions such as the Nile river areas and the South of the Sudan as well as the desert regions of Darfur and the East.
Nader Khalili's fall 2007 semester class at the Southern California Institute of Architecture designed schools for Darfur as their class assignment, resulting in several beautiful and workable school and hospital designs. Ibrahim's class at the University of Khartoum's School of Architecture plans to design schools during their spring semester. The students' designs, incorporating the superabode technology, provide the foundations for the first Darfur community. This community will have a central service area with a boys and girls school, a hospital, a market, a deep bore well, and courthouse - centrally located between several of the burned villages originally comprising around 1500 households.
Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma: Italy- November 2007
ASP (HS4S) and the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma co-sponsored two Sudanese psychiatrists at their November 2007 Master's Certificate Program in Italy (Instituto Superiori di Sanita). This program brings healthcare practitioners, policy makers, and human rights workers together from around the world to share best practices for psychological healing from disaster trauma. The program entails two weeks of classroom training followed by six months of online interactive learning. Future plans for the trainees are to start learning centers in their countries of origin.
HS4S's plans for secure housing with the superadobe are part of the psychological healing for the war-traumatized. Beautiful and secure houses go a long way toward recovery and are something immediately tangible and sustainable for the people in the camps.
HS4S's Partner La Sierra University - Darfur Project in California
SIFE team (Students in Free Enterprise)
Congratulations to La Sierra School of Business and Management's SIFE team for winning the International SIFE championships 2007!!! Their world cup is proudly held by the students who won with their 'Build a Village' Darfur project as one of several wonderful community development operations they have in California, Africa and other parts of the world. La Sierra sponsored a trip in March 2007 for HS4S's architect Kate Courteau and their CEO Marie Besancon to help the students to get their prototype village started on their campus. They are working on partnerships with the University of California, Riverside, the University of Iowa, and Brigham Young University to develop a playground well irrigation system for Darfur.
We hope that SIFE's championship generates a lot of support for HS4S's partner project in the Sudan with the FAO and the Universities in Darfur and Khartoum.
Cost- $15 million
This budget allows for two year program and organization costs that include material and equipment for construction of 1500 houses, a hospital, a boys and girls school, four shallow wells and two deep bore wells, labor and training programs.
Sponsor scholarships for rape victims
As a long term plan, HS4S has a commitment to create opportunities for education and vocational training for the rape victims of the conflict. As this tool of war is particularly dehumanizing and demoralizing, HS4S feels that these individuals should be empowered to recreate their lives and futures. These women, men, and children who desire to go further with university education opportunities in the Sudan or abroad should have a financial source and human sponsorship to fulfill these dreams.
