A bit more about ACCESS –
ACCESS, African Community Center for Social Sustainability, is a community based organization in the Nakaseke region of Uganda. They focus on providing medical care, education and economic empowerment to vulnerable groups. They typically treat 12,000 patients per year. They have a school for midwifery and they focus heavily on empowering women. The project we are building is a medical center. This medical center has an exam room, women’s ward, labor & delivery, pharmacy, medical records and misc. back of house offices/rooms.
ACCESS and Construction for Change are partnering on this project. CfC and the 30/30 Project are providing the majority of funding with the expectation that ACCESS will document and provide updates quarterly on how the medical clinic is functioning. CfC and ACCESS have been working together for a number of years and funding is finally where it needs to be. ACCESS was very excited to have us here to start this much needed project.
Now let’s do this!
Once the contract was executed, crews were onsite the next day ready to go. We started by clearing the site. The site is sloped so it needed to be significantly leveled as well. There was an existing latrine that we had to demolish. We hired a specialist to come and empty the latrine. They demolished the surrounding structure, opened up the pit toilets and poured in sanitizing chemicals. A guy jumped into the hole and began scooping. They filled the back of a truck full, it was lovely. There were a few trees onsite that were removed too. We were able to keep one of the trees, there are a ton of bird nests in it, and so we shifted the building slightly to allow for it to remain. It took the crew of 16 men 5 days to completely clear the site by hand (partially leveled). It was very impressive.
** see Kampala Part #2 for our weekend in Kampala**
The second week of construction was much more hands on for Robin and I. We headed down to the jobsite early every morning and helped lay out the foundations. We used rope (that I had bought previously to try and crochet with, without luck), make-shift plumb bobs, a square and a long tape measure. We assisted the GC and his crews in locating the perimeter of the building and set wood posts for reference.
The crews diligently worked all week, clearing the trenches. The East side of the site was much lower than the West and also much softer ground. The East went very quickly but as we worked our way West the crews were slowed by the large amounts of rock in the earth. By the end of the week, that majority of the trenches were completed (less 2 and some column pads). It was very impressive how quickly and hard the crews worked, especially because it was extremely hot.
We had several deliveries this week; multiple truckloads of brick, sand, hardcore and stone/gravel. We also had a large delivery of bags of concrete and rebar. We’re lucky that we have a lot of space surround the site for storage.
Next week we will lay out the rest of the trenches and the column pads. Crews will begin to blind the ground; applying a concrete/sand mixture to level and prepare the ground for the masonry foundation walls to be built.
Red Rover 