Work, work

So, what projects exactly are we going to be doing here? We don't know. Houses sustained uneven and random amounts of damage, the government has been remarkably quick to do structural repairs to damaged schools, and there aren't other NGOs working in our immediate area with whom we can partner.

But there are still a lot of possibilities. Save the Children (SC) is working in this general region, and two days ago Marc and I went to look at a couple of their projects. Similar to the UNICEF/CEDAPP "Ludotecas" in Peru, SC is running "Safe Spaces," unstructured play areas for children. The open-air spaces are covered with brightly colored canvas, and children draw, sing, dance, and play on mats on the ground. UNICEF has provided kits of toys, included chess boards, stuffed cats (few of which still have their eyes or heads), crayons, books, tambourines, jump ropes, and more. We tied a few of the individual jump ropes together and then jumped together while some adults turned the rope. Apparently the kids (and adults, judging by the crowd and amount of laughing and clapping) had never jumped rope like this before. We ran in and out of the floor, jumped and touched the floor, and jumped and spinned around. Then a boy came and jumped with us; the others were too shy. A couple days a week, a few volunteers could go to the Safe Spaces and play with the children. It's a simple yet exhausting project that is tremendously worthwhile.

SC also wants to build playgrounds at schools. While this isn't directly a disaster project, they want to shift the temporary Safe Spaces (winding down in a month) into a more permanent place for kids. Schools here have open fields for cricket or soccer, but no playground equipment.
SC plans to run a cash-for-work program to first raise the ground (entire schoolyards get flooded during the rainy season), and then build a playground. Maybe we can help build swings and slides!


Regarding housing, there is no one in our area doing any kind of shelter relief. Based on the average small-ish slabs that people have, we've come up with "the HODR Half" - a simple house with a roof pitched at only one angle, rather than peaked in the center. The idea is that this structure would give a family immediate shelter, and the materials can also be incorporated into a permanent, complete house. Families could take the material from the higher wall and use it when they expand their home. It would also be easier to build a roof with only one pitch, versus two. We are still totally playing with this idea, but it could be a great building project!