From Containers to Classrooms

Some have described it as the "new wave" in the construction of classrooms for the developing world while others have declared, "that is just the coolest thing I have ever seen."  The students at the New Dawn Educational Center see it as nothing short of a miracle as they watched the process from start to finish.  The fact is that it's an innovative and environmentally friendly way to provide educational facilities in locations where students are denied an education and shut out of the local educational system for reasons beyond their control.  The students from the slum communities of Huruma and Githogoro have come to call the New Dawn school a lifeline out of the riptide of poverty.  It provides hope for the hopeless and is not only breaking the cycle of poverty physically, but also spiritually as the school provides students with a Christ-centered education. 

 

The latest container to classroom project of African Leadership has resulted in a new three story  high school classroom building that is called the "Resource Center."  The project was 2 years in the making.  Architectural plans were drawn up by a local Kenyan Architect and presented to Irene Tongoi, Director of New Dawn and Dr. Phil Renicks, Educational Consultant , African Leadership.  The plans called for building a three story classroom building out of 8 recycled high cube shipping containers that would provide the school with 5700 square feet or 2,480 square meters of learning space.  When we started the project we didn't know how difficult it would be to obtain decommissioned shipping containers.  Three were donated by a local freight forwarding company and the others were purchased on the local market over a period of several months.  

 

This container school building  is unique in that the containers are opened up and then separated by an eight foot span that was filled in with steel beams and flooring to make the classrooms 24 by 40 feet or 6 by 12 meters.  The first two levels are constructed using 4 containers for each level.  The third floor is constructed using 10 foot by 10 foot cuts from the eight containers used to construct the first two floors. 

On August 10, 2012, the last day of the second term for the year, nearly 400 gathered in a mood of jubilant celebration for the dedication and inauguration of the New Dawn Resource Center.  The celebration lasted nearly 4 hours and included original plays, poetry and presentations written and produced by students. The students also presented traditional dancing.  The celebration centered on God's faithfulness and the speeches and worship time centered on giving Glory to God for his goodness and the generosity of donors who made the construction of this new educational facility a reality.  I have been told that there is nothing like this in all of Kenya or in all of Africa. 

 

Once the exterior construction was complete the interior work began by putting in all the wiring and electrical outlets and then finishing the interior walls by paneling them with plywood.  To look at it you would never know that the walls are made out of solid steel.  Through the generous gifts of donors the building was complete with a library, computer lab, chemistry/physics lab, biology/agriculture lab, a 200 seat assembly hall and a teacher lounge and work room. 

 

One of the challenges of construction in a location like the Huruma slum community is the inconsistency of electricity.  It becomes difficult for a school to function properly when it is difficult to know if there be electricity one hour, four hours or not at all.  To solve that problem and to make the school as environmentally friendly as possible a donor from a solar company in the US is working with a solar company in Kenya to provide the school with a complete solar system that will make the school energy independent from the Kenyan electric grid.  

 

This is definitely the profile for a functionally "green" school building, built with recycled materials and using the abundance of the Kenyan sun to provide electricity. The school also has an agricultural project that provides vegetables for student lunches that are cooked using methane gas from cow dung supplemented by burning Castor Beans.  Perhaps the New Dawn school will become a model for other African communities and will become the "new norm" for school building construction in developing countries. 

 

There is an age-old truth that says, "education is the engine of development, and where there is lack of education, development is stunted. The biggest factor responsible for African underdevelopment is its failure to make bold investments in education, and until we address the issue, Africa will remain poor. " Joseph Kaifala, World Africa, December 2011.  

The New Dawn Educational Center is a "BOLD investment in education" and the future of it's graduates will demonstrate not only the power of an education but the hope of a Christ-centered education.