Community Hall development
Making a Place for Opportunity
A hub for NECS in Nkuringo is the guesthouse. It’s the oasis where NECS supporters arrive after the long journey, to a warm welcome. The guest house bar becomes the centre of all communications, whether it is excited talk about the day, a briefing about a task, an impromptu drumming lesson, a school singing event or somewhere just to sit and process the day. Next to the Nkuringo guesthouse, overlooked by the bar, is a patch of empty ground.
NECS are rising to the challenge of providing Nkuringo with its own communications hub in the form of a Community Hall on the patch of ground next to the guest house. The hall will provide a communal space that will enable the people of Nkuringo to come together in the many ways that enable a community to thrive. So many aspects of Nkuringo life will benefit: the support groups such as Team Women, or the HIV group, will be able to meet and expand their work; the school will have an indoor events space; courses and cultural events will be able to be accommodated in a reliable venue; and many more opportunities for community activities.
NECS have been coordinating with Asgario, patron of NECS, and so far, a village hall design has been developed and refined, and the construction costed by a local contractor. The design has been through a few iterations, from an open-sided covered space with a small office, a store and toilets, to a more weather-flexible, brick-sided building, which includes a hall and a meeting room large enough for a committee or group to sit together.
To bring the ideas alive, these images have been created that give a flavour for the size and look of the proposed building, which is roughly 17m long by 10m wide, and its context in the village.
The cost of the proposed building has been provided as a Bill of Quantities (or BoQ) by the contractor, which details everything from bricks, to nails, to window frames. The BoQ has been checked and compared to building rates in Uganda and the NECS trustees have found it a very reliable costing. A copy is included here for information, which comes to approximately £73 per square metre. Good value for money, we think, considering the returns that the space will generate in terms of the opportunities for enriching the quality of village life.
So, there is a plot of land, a design, and a reliable cost estimate – now for the construction. This is where NECS team up with the local contractor, who will progress the design of the structural elements, obtain the building permits and undertake the work, under the watchful eye of Asgario and his team.
The building is expected to take 6 months to build and a start on site in 2024 should be achievable, so please consider any donations worthwhile, which will be of benefit to all generations in Nkuringo who will be able to use this valuable community asset. Please donate to this project here.
Who knows, a future famous Ugandan actor, or entrepreneur, or conservationist, may be set on a path to success by once being inspired, in the Nkuringo Community Hall.