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Design Philosophy


The 20-acre campus includes the first accessible primary school for the local children. The innovative design, by architect Leslie Jill Hanson, is based on the traditional Sukuma village layout of clustered homes. A proud community workforce has assembled to create the school. The laborers are learning marketable skills, many of them earning their first-ever paychecks. Building materials such as locally available sand, soil, stone and wood have been chosen to ensure sustainability. Cisterns and wells are designed to take advantage of the rainy season, while composting latrines are built with sensitivity to hygiene and protection of the environment. The thoughtful landscaping provides private gardens for teachers, a teaching garden for students, a kitchen garden to help supply food for lunches and shade trees for shelter from the hot sun. In keeping with Sukuma tradition, a euphorbia hedge surrounds the campus to delineate the school boundaries.


1. Teacher houses with gardens and latrines
2. Soccer field and Net-Ball Courts
3. Administration Building and Community Center
4. Kitchen
5. Classrooms in clusters
6. Euphorbia Hedge
7. Storage Shed
8. Girls and Boys Latrines
9. School Well
10. Teachers’ Well



Classroom Paintings

Colorful paintings decorate the walls and also serve as valuable teaching tools in an area where there are very few resources.

Teacher houses under construction.
The life-changing well has been in constant use since it was drilled in 2007.
Sanitary composting latrines are being built for both the boys and the girls.