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Building European Standard Schools in Africa (BESSA) was founded in 2010 by a group of like minded individuals who shared the view that the Future of Africa was either being under-invested in, or invested in in the wrong manner.
We have nothing but praise for charities that set out to build schools in Africa to help out in deprived areas. However, we feel that the sort of money being spent could be better invested. Although they are gratefully received by the adoring locals, these buildings often amount to little more than expensive mud-huts that have very little longevity in them. Moreover, the average mud-hut school in sub-Saharan Africa costs over £100,000 to build. For something that is essentially made of sticks and mud-bricks produced locally, this seems a bit steep! Furthermore, it will be lucky to last 10 years | |
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We are not in any way suggesting that the integrity of charities building schools in Africa needs to be called into question. This is not the case. Yet, the way they go about building their Schools may well need revising!
It is common place to use British Architects, Project Managers, Consultants and even Tradesmen to carry out the building of charity funded schools in Africa. We feel that this is money wasted that also cheats locals out of much needed boosts to the local economy by way of both money and jobs. This is the reason, as some of those involved in our organisation have done in the past, we intend to pay a fair wage to local labourers for all of our projects. This will not only make for a brighter future, but also for an immediate impact on the local and surrounding areas.
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About Schools for Africa
