St. Monica's Washroom Renovation

Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe became Director of St. Monica’s Girls’ Tailoring Centre in the northern Ugandan city of Gulu in 2001 and converted it into a refuge for thousands of girls whose lives had been shattered by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army’s campaign of terror in northern Uganda.  The civil war is over but Sister Rosemary continues to transform the lives of young women who enroll in her school, now called St. Monica’s Vocational School for Girls, to learn lifelong vocations in sewing, food preparation, jewelry crafting, childcare and other skills that allow them to earn a living for themselves.  The campus has facilities to house and school as many as 400 students.  The dormitories and wash facilities are around 50 years old now and are showing their age, some much worse than others.

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Two years ago, the girl’s washroom was condemned due to extensive structural and plumbing decay.  The girls that had been using this facility are now sharing a staff washroom, pushing that service well beyond its intended capacity.  We fear that this increased pressure on the only existing washroom will result in its failure in the near term, leaving the school with no student wash facilities.

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We propose to repair and renovate the girl’s washroom, bringing it up to current building code and safety standards, and re-establish a dignified facility for the girls to use for their daily cleaning and bathroom amenities.  With this renovation the facility will be in usable condition for another 50 years.

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Proposed path forward with durations:

1. Perform an engineering and architectural assessment to determine the full extent of renovation required | 2 weeks

2. Prepare engineering and architectural plans suitable for bidding | 6 weeks

3. Work with local contractors to arrive at best value for the work | 2 weeks

4. Perform the renovation | 2 weeks mobilization, 8 weeks construction

 

TOTAL DURATION: 20 weeks

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