Community Project

The Community Project is building a community driven K-8 school with vegetable gardens, its own brick producing workshop, bamboo propagation nursery and community facilities for 1000 children and their families in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia. We work in partnership with the community, the local government, Debre Birhan University, Debre Birhan Polytechnic College, 3 Engineers Without Borders teams, Architects Without Borders, and the Ethiopian Mission at the United Nations. Our work is to empower the community with support for better education, sanitation, and economic development for their families.

We are building a kindergarten through 8th grade model school for 1000 children community center and classroom vegetable gardens in an economically disadvantaged area of Ethiopia. All structures are community-built with technical expertise donated by Engineers and Architects Without Borders. As part of the holistic educational project: 1. We built composting toilets to recycle waste back to the nutrient-poor soil. 2. Developed a Bamboo Propagation Nursery to add economic benefit to the region training young farmers in planting this renewable crop used for construction material furniture making and biofuel. The young shoots are also used as a food source. 3. Our demonstration Apple Orchards train local farmers to plant this highly nutritious and economic fruit not yet commercially available in our highland region. As part of enlarging the educational experience we promote and sponsor educational training for our teachers and have initiated the first elementary STEM program.