St Monica’s Vocational School and Gulu
St. Monica’s Vocational School is a girls’ school for those who were once abducted by the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) and have since returned. These girls bring with them horrific memories and need help adjusting to community life, including making a living. Many also bring children born of their forced marriages. Courses in catering, tailoring, designing, weaving are held. There is a nursery and preschool for children( toddlers to 6 years of age) where our MCC service worker helps out.
One of the projects at the school is building a plastic water bottle house. These bottles are numerous! Sand is pounded in to the bottles; the bottles form the wall with a mixture of 10 parts sand to 1 part cement to hold the bottles in place. The building is approximately 15 ft x 15 ft and will be used as a guest room. It is nearly ready for the thatched roof.
Another project for the girls is making purses out of metal flip top rings, ie, the openers for soft drink cans. They are beautiful and unique. A sweater type garment was even created.
We stayed on the third floor of a hotel in Gulu with a good view of the middle of the town.
May 14th, 2011 at 4:55 pm
I am just impressed by this amazing house. I think this must be an initiative by Sr. R and some friends whom I believe that they are too conscious about the environment. Thanks! Am longing to visit this miracle house and sleep in it. I am just excited about it. I think it must be the first house in Africa made from used plastic water bottles. These bottles are a threat to the environment, but R’s creativity has shown us that they are not a threat, but a blessing in disguise in the effort towards poverty eradication, environment protection and human hygiene. This house is suitable for Africa’s conditions because (1) termites will not eat it (2) anyone can afford to build himself or herself such a house as long as one is committed to collecting plastic water bottles (3) it is phenomenal as it is empowering the community to raise badly needed funds for securing educational material and household items. I think it is the most environmentally friendly house since it does away cutting down trees to bake the bricks. I have learnt that it is so cool that even in the hottest days of the year, the temperatures around maintained at 20 degrees Celsius. Bravo Plastic Water Bottle House!