Tiémélékro is one of the newest towns in Ivory Coast. It has undergone a dramatic demographic growth in a very short time. Because of its lack of resources and the increment in the population of school aged children, part of these children cannot attend school due to lack of rooms. As a consequence, some of them start their schooling later or fail to attend school altogether. In the case of girls, the situation is much worse, since most of them help the women with domestic asks. Therefore, only a minority of them has access to education.

The kindergarten plays a key role in introducing children to instruction. It has such an important role for integration that the Ivory Coast Ministry of Education passed a bill requiring every primary school to be associated with some kindergarten. This project started on January 2007 in Tiémélékro and corresponds to the second phase of the Primary School in the district of Sogephia. It consists in the construction and opening of a kindergarten and a library, plus the urbanisation of the site.

The library complements a number of interventions in the area of education with great value for the community. It will be a public library, open both to students of the primary school as well as to the rest of the inhabitants of the town. As for the book supply, we contacted the French Association Biblionef, which provided new books in French to those facilities built through development cooperation projects.

Nyakatoke is a rural village in the northwestern corner of Tanzania, near Bukoba, with nearly 600 inhabitants. Due to the fact that there is no nursery school within walking distance of the village, the average level of education in Nyakatoke is far below the rural Tanzanian standards. It is widely acknowledged that especially primary education is one of the most powerful tools in fighting extreme poverty: achieving a full course of primary schooling for all boys and girls is one of the UN Millennium Development Goals. The building of a nursery school in Nyakatoke will be a small step towards achieving those goals.

The design of the building was driven by local circumstances such as the orientation of the plot, the people’s living conditions, etc. Special attention has also been given to ecological measures such as the recycling of rainwater. Since only locally available materials and techniques will be applied, no external workers need to be involved in the construction of the building. All these measures should ensure the sustainability of the project.

The project aims at formulating guidelines for future sustainable projects of “Second Hosting Centre” for refugees asking for asylum, in order to contribute to the improvement of the Hosting System in Italy. This system turned out to be inadequate and privileges the assistance character and not the participative character, typical of the existing hosting centre management. ASF Onlus worked out the typological and composition scheme of a New Model of Second Hosting Centre, that would be suitable to be used by local Administrations to apply it to the recovering processes of buildings or for new ones, to create a built-up and functional space, taking into account the communities’ interculturality in order to stimulate integration in the neighbourhoods and in the city.

The project has been developed in a participatory way together with groups asking for asylum and occupying two dismissed buildings near the future “Nuova Stazione Tiburtina dell’Alta Velocità” in Rome.

The San Francisco Javier Hospital, recognized by the National Sanitary System as the public hospital of Assin district, is the reference hospital structure for 41 surgeries, scattered in this area with about 250.000 beneficiaries. Considering the importance of the hospital, a great planning analysis was imperative. A methodological and procedural process of transformation and reorganization of Assin was initiated in order to improve the existing structures and their reciprocal relations, thus guaranteeing a correct and sustainable increase of the new sanitary structure.

ASF ONLUS designed the technical urban project which includes the interventions for the planning and development of the entire hospital center. The master-plan contains measures for the enlargement of the pre-existing hospital buildings, for the reorganization of the connections between the different parts as well as for the realization of new buildings, more functional for the users.

This is the largest project undertaken by AWF to date. It is based on collaboration between AWF and Engineers Without Borders. Located in Enga Province about 5 hours drive from Mount Hagen, which is the entry point to the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, Kompian Hospital currently has 38 beds. This project will expand the number of beds to 70, as well as providing improved facilities for wards, dispensary, and outpatient wing and operation theatres.

The site is extremely remote, made more inaccessible by the condition of the roads and the steep terrain - the last 35km to the site takes 2.5hrs to travel. This makes transportation of materials to the site an issue. As all the building materials have to be transported by road from Mount Hagen, the palette is limited. Metal roof and wall cladding on timber framing (with detailing in mind for termites) and glass louvers are great for transport and light but difficult to keep clean, so the team are exploring possibility of materials such as crime safe.

Further challenges in the design include a limited electricity supply (only 3hrs by generator per day, supplemented by solar power), availability of materials, vandalism, termites, cleaning/ hygiene, a preference for new materials over traditional, a perception that ‘new’ has permanence and the performance of modern materials in an equatorial climate.

The project was originally supervised by Catherine Love and the late Dennis Small, and models and drawings were done by AWF volunteers. These were handed over to Nettleton Tribe Architects who are doing the construction documentation for the hospital in a pro-bono capacity. Currently the focus is on the pediatric ward for which funding has been sourced from the PNG government, and which will begin construction in December 2009. Lilian Aril, from Nettleton Tribe, is working closely with the structural engineer, Tamri Curran, from Bilfinger Berger Services, who are volunteering their expertise to the project through Engineers Without Borders.

Migration: Our ideology stands for a new mentality, presented in our Manifesto.

Interface: A platform that supports and connects different individuals, projects, organizations, ideas… building bridges between them.

Reflection: The process of individual awareness starts by creating individual consciousness.

Activism: Being active with effective answers to different problems and situations, denouncing, reclaming and redefining.

Our objective with this initiative was to promote a reflection on the city, its physical and social territory concerning the problems of social exclusion, specially associated with migration issues. Therefore, this competition of ideas has as object of study/intervention our own city, Oporto, represented by four places:

1- Rotunda da Areosa

2- Urban void near Casa da Música

3- Blocks behind S. Bento Train Station

4- Viela do Anjo

By choosing these places we searched for identification in our urban territory of different case studies associating public space reflection, citizenship, social exclusion and migrants’ settlements. Our aim was to encourage participants to propose ideas and concepts for an intervention on the suggested places bearing in mind a critical reflection on the issues mentioned above. The proposal must have also seek raising awareness and reclaiming social integration, in order to develop a more democratic territory and a more active role of each individual in the community.

Sri Lanka was one of the countries most affected by the Tsunami tragedy (more than 40.000 people died) and serious problems continue, mainly at the level of public health. The severe damage to health infrastructures is one of the leading problems today. Jaffna, one of the most affected regions, situated in the north of the country, continues to be neglected by international NGO’s and the government, due to the existing bad relationship with the Tamil.

In partnership with ASFP, Doctors of the World - Portugal (MDMP) intended to build a Centre of Primary Health Care in Jaffna. Along with the Health’s Centre, the MDMP will also expand their work through beneficial repairing at the Point Peter’s Hospital, renewal of the dental clinic and the construction of a blood bank. The ASF involvement consisted of allocating a suitable technician in the scope of construction management and technology. During a site visit, 2 ASFP technicians carried out a cautious and thorough survey in order to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of the program.

The team assessed the following issues: social and technological context of the country and province of Jaffna, possible favourable locations for the health centre to be built and hospital units organization in order to rehabilitate those in most need.

ADTJK (Association pour le Développement Technique de la Jeunesse Khmere) is a cambodian association founded in 1993, which has been supporting for 9 years the schooling at «Somra Komar» primary school that the association has built in Village II of Kampong Svay (suburb of Sisophon, north-east of Cambodia). ADTJK also has been providing extra help sessions for 3 years, for the children of its household (Foyer Lataste) and its sponsored godchilds.

Rewarded for 3 consecutive years (2006, 2007, 2008) by the Komar Metreï prize, Somra Komar school is the best of the town. Strong of its results in primary and its experience in managing educational support, ADTJK wants secondary school pupils benefit of its capacity, because it appeared that the local secondary school is in need of it, especially for the poorest pupils. ATDJK aims to develop on its site a building project including 10 classrooms and a library. The project is held by a french association, AEC (Aide aux Enfants Cambodgiens) which wants to keep on developing educational action toward the youths of Foyer Lataste, and extend this action to the poorest children of the area.

AEC called ASF to evaluate the technical feasability of the project, and to study the context and the program stakes. An evaluation mission was lead in may 2009. This project’s ambition is to structure the district, as a dynamic educative pole, acknowledged by all the villagers. Work with local constructive techniques and an accurate design of each space will be needed, to succeed in the insertion of the project, in this mostly agricultural region.

The Dien Ban Disability Day Centre is a proposed health and educational facility that the Kianh Foundation plans to build in 2010 in order to meet pressing needs for disability support and services in Dien Ban/Hoi An, Central Vietnam. Architects Without Frontiers are working with pro-bono firm, BURO Architecture, from Melbourne, RMIT University, RMIT International University Vietnam (RIUV) to develop concept designs for the 1600m2 facility.

The Kianh Foundation is a UK charity that has been helping disabled and disadvantaged children at the government-owned Hoi An Orphanage in Hoi An since 2002. It hopes to expand its work by building a separate, purpose designed facility in Dien Ban, located 8km from Hoi An. Dien Ban was heavily bombed during the war and has the highest proportion of disability in the Province, with over 800 children with disability who do not have access to essential education and therapy services.

The Disability Day Centre will help to address the gap in services by providing much needed medical and educational assistance. It also aims to set a benchmark in green building design. The two-storey facility will provide space for physiotherapy, education and training, administration and recreation. It will also include outdoor physiotherapy, playground and landscaped areas.

Concept designs for the proposed facility were prepared in July 2008 by AWF’s partner firm BURO Architecture. However, due to a change of site location, and the recent impact of Typhoon Ketsana, the concept is being re-developed. AWF staff visited Dien Ban in October 2009 to review the new site and also to assess damage by Ketsana. The typhoon hit Quang Nam province with winds of up to 144 km/h with the flow on affect of the worst flooding on record. Fortunately the Kianh Foundation has been spared significant damage on this occasion. AWF will work with BURO architecture over the next 3-4 months to develop revised concept designs for the Disability Day Centre, which is scheduled to go to construction by mid 2010.