Project Lead: Amelia Roosen
Contact: mdse.sierraleone.pl@gmail.com
Project Phase: Scoping next steps
On the outskirts of Freetown, Calaba Town was built after the civil war by the reconstruction efforts and is home to several ethnic groups that relocated during the war, which started in 1991 and ended in 2002. Lacking basic infrastructure, the Calaba Town area was identified by the Madieu Williams Foundation as a community that would benefit greatly from the construction of a school. The Madieu Williams Foundation funded the construction of the Abigail D. Butscher Primary School in 2009. The school did not have access to electrical power until 2012 when the Madieu Williams Foundation and the A. James Clark School of Engineering partnered with Maryland Sustainability Engineering to develop a sustainable solution for the school’s electricity needs. In June 2014, the team returned to the country and implemented a rainwater catchment and disinfection system in order to provide the community with clean drinking water. In addition, construction of a secondary school building began. Sierra Leone was hit with the Ebola outbreak very shortly after the end of this implementation trip, so the secondary school project was delayed. In June 2016, the team was able to return to the community to continue with construction and in January 2017, the team returned to the country to survey and assess the structural integrity of the newly constructed school. While initial plans were to finish building the school over the winter, due to unexpected circumstances, the construction of the school was completed by local contractors before we had arrived. In June 2017, adjustments were made to the building to increase its structural integrity. The roof trusses were reinforced with a mixture of steel and plywood gusset plates. Additionally, the site was re-graded to divert stormwater away from the school’s foundation. In January 2018, the roof on the secondary school was extended so that students on the walkway outside could be protected from the rain. The water system was also expanded; the already existing 5,000 L tank was not sufficient to last the dry season, so a 10,000 L tank was added. Recently, a new school building has been built for a secondary school, a project that was finished in January 2024. The Sierra Leone team will now work to design a solar array for the new school building.
Former Project Leads: Jess Mense, Finn O’Neill, Sammie Falco, Julia Tepper, Jaclyn Taylor, Torrance Wang, Sam Laicona, Henry Ko, Kathryn Connoly, Noam Fine, Matthew Smith