Maggie goes to Kakuma
Program: Education Center
Blueprint: Maggie goes to
Location: Kakuma Refugee Camp, Turkana county, Kenya
Budget: € 125 000
Timeline: February till March of 2020
Project description
March 2020, the Maggie team built an ‘innovation lab’ school in Kakuma, a refugee camp in Kenya. This pop-up school functions completely off the grid. It creates its’ own energy through solar panels and has an internet connection. Inside there are more than a 100 laptops available for the community. Refugees can go to school here, have skill training and so much more. The project is donated to UNHCR Kenya.
- The powerful speech of an inspiring girl living in the Kakuma Refugee Camp -
This fragment is from the episode "Project Kakuma" of the documentary series "Heroes for the Planet."
For the project, a Hollywood film crew accompanied the team, capturing the life in the camp and the construction of the two Maggie Shelters, to create this episode. This Campfire production was directed by Kief Davidson, an Academy Award and Emmy-nominated director.
Watch here the full episode “Project Kakuma” on Vimeo!
Partners
Day 1
After a very short night in Nairobi, the Maggie team left Wilson airport at 6 a.m. to take the UN flight to Kakuma. The camp is so remote in the Kenyan desert that the only way to get there safely is by plane. Because of frequent floods (Kakuma is situated in an area that used to be a lake, right next to the high lands of Uganda.), jeeps are needed to get through the muddy roads and water. We were so excited to be driving in these iconic UN vehicles, just like Tintin in the comic books we used to read as kids.
Check-in at UNHCR security meant meeting with the team of Mohamud Hure, our local host, for the planning and technical issues, getting a safety briefing about conflicts, as well as spitting deadly cobra’s, puff adders, scorpions, and spiders.
Lastly, we made a visit to the construction site. We were welcomed by the children of Fashoda school, where the project is located, along with their extremely friendly principal. Our Maggie-team heroes, Karel and Maxim, hid in the Jeep during this meeting since they are afraid of children.
Day 2
As promised it was a smoking hot day. Unfortunately, we already lost one of our Maggie-team members, Maxim, to a sunstroke. Don’t worry though! He’s already doing much better after a day in bed and/or on the toilet. Nevertheless, we managed to get ahead of the schedule.
First off, we moved the Maggie components from the UN warehouse to the construction site. In total, we moved more than 200 profiles, 200m2 of floor and 800m2 of tarpaulins (14 tons of weight). Thanks to the good collaboration between our own Maggie-team members and the local Turkana workers it didn’t seem like that much work. Afterward, we used the empty container as a storage room and source of electricity. It was put into place on the construction site, ready for Greenlink to mount the solar panels onto it.
Part of our handy team, consisting of our own Matthias together with people from Congo, South Sudan, and Burundi, started the pre-assembly of the first structures.
We worked until curfew at 6 pm. Afterward, we drove back to the UN compound for some much-needed hydration and some socializing with the locals.
Day 3
A very productive day. All the spans are assembled but still on the ground. Tomorrow morning the two structures will arise!
It’s improvising to find some shade with this burning sun in Kakuma. It was almost 40 degrees Celsius today. This makes working very heavy. Luckily, the satisfaction of seeing the progress at the end of the day makes it all alright.
Around 6 pm we managed to arrange a quick visit to the Kakuma university which is under construction. The natural environment is truly stunning as soon as you leave the camp.
Day 4
The project is beginning to take shape: the first Maggie structure is standing, Greenlink provided and connected solar panels for our container, the sand for padding the walls arrived on site and we saw our first scorpion!
Day 5
By now there are two brand new Maggie’s sparkling on the site. The solar system is operative. The batteries have been charged for the first time. We’re officially off the grid! We are very excited to see all of it come to life thanks to our amazing team of locals, refugees, and Maggie volunteers.
Furthermore, it’s getting hotter every day. That’s why Paul, our fantastic driver, goes back and forth twice a day to get loads of water.
Tomorrow we’re closing up the walls and roof. Afterward, we’ll start the electrical work.
Day 6
We’re extremely proud of our team members Maxim and Karel today. Not only did they install the rooftop ventilation of the Maggie’s but they did this despite Maxims’ extreme fear of heights and Karels’ very real chance of getting blown away.
Meanwhile, Karolien and Pieter were practicing their movie star act for the Maggie documentary production team (Coming out soon on Netflix, no kidding!).
Moreover, we placed the first canvases in the structure. Tomorrow we’ll start filling up the walls with sand, placing the floors and putting in the electricity.
After work, we visited the local library and the studio of an artist from Ethiopia, who currently seeks refuge in Kakuma. He will paint the Maggie’s with cool cartoon art after we finish, so people will love this school even more!
Hakuna Matata!
Day 7
Day 8
Only 5 minutes after finishing the roof, it started raining. That’s some incredible fortune!
The team is craving a break. We’re all exhausted from all the hard work we’ve put in. We have been working up to 10 hours a day for 7 days straight. Looking forward to Sunday when we can take a day off.
Day 9
Filling, filling, and some more filling!
Last finishings inside, putting the doors and some extra details. In the meanwhile, the locally made school benches are almost ready.
Tomorrow we’ll take a short break!
Day 10
Today we finally caught a day of rest!
We did some sightseeing, among other things we visited Kakuma 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 (There are so many of them!) Additionally, we also saw a gospel church and Kalobejey. Next to that we played some ping pong, hang around in the pool and did some more interviews for the documentary. By the end of the day, we felt totally recharged and ready to get back to work. Tomorrow, we’re planning to put in the last finishings.
Day 11
Kids, kids, and more kids! School has started again and they’re super curious to check out the Maggie’s. Meanwhile, we wrapped up the construction: putting in the last of the fillings of the walls and small finishes.
The second part of our team with Koen, Fred, and Ruben arrived. We’re almost ready for the big opening soon!
Day 12
Filling up the walls is finally finished. We’re especially grateful for all the refugees who worked so hard to the 50 tons of sand inside the walls. The lights and sockets are working. We have ultra-high-speed internet. And on top of that, we’re one hundred percent solar-powered! In the meanwhile, team Timmers-UNHCR Belgium is decorating the interior. Tomorrow they’ll have their very first ‘start to skype’ class in the Maggie’s.
Tomorrow the president of Germany is visiting Kakuma.
Day 13
Today has been such a hectic day! The furniture arrived, the classes were installed, laptops charged, internet booted up and mosquito nets put into place. Their first skype class took place for more than 100 excited pupils. In the end, everything went well. Tomorrow the official inauguration by UNHCR will take place. We’re immensely delighted to see the result of everyone’s hard work.
Day 14
The end.
Official opening by UNHCR, TAG, and Maggie Program. Some last-minute altering’s to the mosquito nets, cleaning of the container, planting 6 Maggie trees, having our last lunch, and taking some selfies. In the meantime, classes continued.
Tomorrow we’ll get back to Nairobi.
But above all this is a new beginning. Once more we would like to give a huge thanks to all our partners, sponsors, and helping hands. And a special thanks to my wonderful volunteers: Maxim, Karolien, Matthias, Pieter, and Karel. You guys did an amazing job!
Asante Sana!
Day +
Preparation
Kick-off
The projects of the Maggie Program are all about maximizing collaboration with local partners.
Today our Kenyan subcontractor Turkana started with Maggie’s preparatory works. Some groundwork and a light foundation so the Maggie’s can serve for at least 15 years as a high-quality innovation lab school. Classical heavy buildings would need very deep (up to 2,5 m) and expensive foundations in this unstable alluvial soil. Luckily this isn’t necessary for a Maggie pop-up school!
In just a short few weeks, the Maggie team will start building on site. Exciting. Stay tuned!
Site preparations
The concrete is getting poured into the foundations! Beautiful casting work from our local partner Turkana Technical and Building Company despite the heavy downpour that hit the area. It’s almost ready for the Maggie team to take over.
The journey of our Maggie container
Before going down there we shipped a container with all the Maggie materials to Kakuma. The Maggie is designed to be assembled with only 1 socket wrench 13/17 (last picture) and no special skills. But the Maggie team wants to go fast, so we made six custom toolboxes with a set of power tools.
We love it when a plan comes together just like we planned it! The local contractor Turkana was just finishing up the base for placing our container on when the truck carrying it arrived in Kakuma.
After 10.000 km’s over water, rails, and dust roads the Maggie container has finally arrived in Kakuma! Due to the heavy rains over the last few days, the container was temporarily unloaded in a UNHCR warehouse. This is because the truck wasn’t able to reach the construction site on the muddy, slippery roads. But at least our container arrived safe & on time.
Big thanks to Mohamud Hure of UNHCR KENYA and his 10 local helping hands for taking care of everything on-site!
Special thanks to our logistical partners Manora Logistics & Wim Dierckx (forwarding & proud sponsor) as well as UNHCR Belgium and UNHCR KENYA.
Special thanks to Koen Timmers.
