Orphanage - MBale, Africa

I was hired to develop a design for an orphanage on a rather steep hillside in the mountainous city of MBale in Uganda, Africa.  This project was started by Mel Wabuke, a Ugandan immigrant that came to the U.S. as a child.  He worked very hard to earn a doctorate degree in Bio-engineering and became very prosperous.  After writing several books on his life and the plight of his birth country, he became dedicated to the cause of helping the many children left homeless and starving due to wars, massacres and genocide committed by the fascist military dictatorship that controls the region.

This project was part of a study of the best use of the tough landscape in the area as well as access to the natural resources of the area.  Security was a major consideration as well.  There are many factors of daily life that had to be considered that are very different from that way in which we live in the U.S.  Access to Natural resources, collection, use and reuse of resources, space saving and food production, security and safety, visibility and egress, separation of genders, defined and defensible separations of private and public spaces and so on.  The end result of the design study and is being used to create an awareness and funding campaign that will hopefully soon end in the creation of some form of aid for the children of MBale, Africa and beyond.