Phelisanong Lesotho Project

We have partnered with the non-profit Sentebale to design and build a much needed kitchen for the Phelisanong Centre for Children with Disabilities based in the beautiful rural mountainous town of Pitseng in Lesotho. Currently there is no kitchen and 200 meals have to be prepared in the outdoors come rain or sunshine starting at 4a.m with the collection of firewood as fuel for the outdoor stoves. The kitchen will not only impact the lives of the centre staff a lot easier but it will also enable the center to start offering catering facilities in the conference facility as part of their social enterprise activities. In addition we will be setting up a new water supply system so that the children can once again bathe in the bathrooms as opposed to wash basins since their pipes have been running dry ever since the main water supply has been cut off to the center almost two years ago.  Phelisanong provides a home, family and community for orphans and children living with intellectual and physical disabilities, HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses. We will be working closely with the surrounding community in the implementation of this project.

5 Hub Schools Project

We are proud to have been recruited by Action Ireland Trust as their implementing partner to design and construct toilets as well as school kitchens, rain water harvesting and food gardens for 5 Schools in the Lithabaneng area in Maseru District. These schools have been identified by the Ministry of Education as top priority schools for assistance. We enlisted our in loco alumni from 2018 & 2019 to assist with this project. They have been doing an incredible job in conducting participatory design workshops with the school children, alumni, teachers, parents, board and surrounding communities because rise international believes in a community driven approach, in order to ensure local community ownership and engagement through community participation in all our projects from design through to inception.  We believe that merely giving what you think will “help” may not help at all. Click here to watch

Morija Heritage Project

We have partnered with Seriti sa Makhoarane (SSM) Heritage & Tourism Initiative to carry out an architectural survey and to compile restoration plans for historic buildings in and around the Makhoarane Area about 40kms from the capital of Maseru, Lesotho.

The SSM Initiative arises from a process involving Morija Museum & Archives, the Royal Archives & Museum (Matsieng) and key stakeholders in the Makhoarane Area. After the realization that preserving, presenting and managing our heritage assets more effectively can make a positive difference to the four historic communities of Morija, Matsieng, Makeneng and Phahameng as well as the surrounding region. Many of the heritage sites are deteriorating, the current volume of visitors and tourists is relatively low, and the infrastructure and amenities are inadequate if tourism is to grow meaningfully.

Our role in this project, is to build the capacity of five local apprentices, in their surveying skills and the restoration of historical building abilities. In collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano, Italy we are training five local graduates selected from the Ministry of Finance’s Apprenticeship Scheme who are taking the lead in the restoration plans.

Hand Wash Stations project

rise was commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to make 105 hand wash stations for the Ministry of Health and Maseru City Council to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in Lesotho. These stations have been installed in all 10 districts of Lesotho at health clinics, hospitals, child care facilities as well as busy town areas.

UNDP and UNICEF had learnt about the excellent work that had been done by our in loco alumni, xyz collaborative, in making and distributing hand-wash stations earlier in the year when an NGO called Sepheo had commissioned rise to make and install 10 emergency hand-wash stations in the Motimposo communities in Maseru, Lesotho. This project continues to help many members in vulnerable communities who do not have access to running water thus are at the highest risk of contracting the virus.

Watch a brief documentary released at the 2020 Lesotho Film festival, illustrating not only how this hand wash station project has helped address the pandemic but also how it has helped create jobs at a time of a national crises with youth unemployment and poverty in Lesotho.

Day Care Centers Improvements

Quality affordable day care for low income earners, such as factory workers who earn less than $150 a month, is hard to find. For this reason, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) of Lesotho have partnered with rise to design a model day care center that would act as a benchmark for other day care centers to follow best practices and improve the quality of care of children. However, until funds have been raised to build the model day care center, CRS has commissioned rise to design low cost improvements for existing day care centers in Maputsoe, an industrial area 2 hours north of Maseru. This project was led by our 2018 alumni with the assistance of some 2019 alumni.

You can see the low cost improvement designs here

Lesotho National Federation of Organizations for the Disabled project

The Lesotho National Federation of Organizations for the Disabled hired rise to design & build their new Headquarter offices as well as income generating activities so that they can sustain themselves as an organization. This project formed the 2020 in loco fellowship. We built a unique inclusive building in Naledi, Maseru. We believe this kind of design will eradicate barriers that have created separation between people living with disability and those who are not. It will hopefully facilitate and enable equality and independence in the organization.

Scatec Solar Africa project

Scatec solar commissioned rise to conduct financial training of 36 community members in Mafeteng who are now shareholders of a company that is going to be the first of its kind in Lesotho to feed solar generated energy into the national grid. The rural community members were given a down payment for the lease of their plots of land on which the solar panels will be placed, and once the project kicks off, they will be receiving dividends on a quarterly basis for the solar generated energy.

Intellectual Disability and Autism Lesotho (IDAL) Center Project

IDAL (Intellectual Disability & Autism Lesotho) is a non-profit parent-led association. IDAL commissioned rise to design & construct a center that had been a dream for over 20 years but lacked funds to build. Standard Lesotho Bank and their partners gave a grant to IDAL who then recruited rise to take on this life changing project which formed the 2019 in loco fellowship.

We created a beautiful multifunctional pavilion surrounded by sensory gardens and an educational farm. It is also Lesotho’s first center specially designed for youth with autism and intellectual disabilities. The center is an ecological structure that is completely off the grid, with solar panels for electricity, a bore hole and rainwater harvesting and eco-friendly fencing that blends in with the environment. As well as multi-purpose areas for training and other activities, the center also has a multi-sensory space as well as a diagnostics room for early detection of autism and intellectual disabilities.

Learn more about the IDAL center by watching this brief video. You can also watch the design process of the Centre here as well as the findings from the Participatory Design Workshop here and Concept Designs here.

in loco 2019: Entrepreneurship Program

in loco 2019: was a live Design & Build Entrepreneurship Program that ran from August 2019 to January 2020.

A cohort of 13 recently graduated Basotho students from local Architecture and Construction Schools participated in this innovative fellowship program.

While building the country’s first ever centre for youth with Intellectual Disability & Autism, the fellows also went through an intense Business Training program which is comprised of classroom theoretical work as well as practical assignments such as conducting market research, compiling business plans, running social media campaigns, hosting events to mention but a few, so that by the end of the fellowship the fellows are in a position to launch their own small business generating employment for themselves and others in their communities.

As well as the business trainings the fellows were also all assigned various roles which they rotated every 2 months so that they got to practice how to run a company by taking on different responsibilities including being a site manager, site architect, buyer, plants & logistics manager, health & safety officer, quality control manager and so on.

Thus being transformed from job seekers to job creators. See what other skills they learnt by watching this video by one of the the 2019 alumni here

Invest in the future of African Entrepreneurs. Donate here

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Ha Sekantsi: Sewing Project

In partnership with Possible Dreams Foundation we are working with 300 community members from the beautiful Ha’ Sekantsi community piloting a holistic approach to rural community development tackling access to Economic, Infrastructure and Education.

The community wants to set up a sewing project so thanks to a small grant from Amelija Vincent the community now has sewing machines and is being trained on how to make clothes and uniforms to raise income so they can afford to send their children to school and can contribute towards community projects such as the setting up of a learning center which is their long term dream.

Mobile Shops for Energy Efficient Stoves

We are thrilled to announce that we are the winners of an EU tender and have been selected by the social enterprise Africa Clean Energy for the design of 19 mobile shops which will be placed in the deepest parts of rural Lesotho to distribute their state of the art energy efficient stoves. The mobile shops mean that more people gain access to these life changing integral solutions specifically designed for off-grid households and be able to cook faster, using less fuel and producing less or no smoke therefore creating a healthier environment.

We have now built 4 of these mobile shops enabling ACE to easily distribute their energy efficient stoves to hard-to-reach rural communities throughout Lesotho.

Learn more about ACE’s stoves by watching this brief video

Model Child Daycare Centre for low income families

In partnership with Catholic Relief Services Lesotho, we have been been trying to address the poor quality of childcare centers in Lesotho, where mostly single mothers (who earn less than $70 per month), drop off their babies as young as a 6 weeks, while they work in the textile factories for over 10 hours per day.

Learn more about the problem by watching this brief video produced by CRS.

Through a collaborative participatory design process, we have engaged with over 25 different stakeholders including factories, trade unions, day care opearators, parents, NGO’s, Government and others to try to find solutions including ways in which day care centers can improve their quality of care through low or no cost solutions which you can see here.

In addition we have developed a model day care centre which would act as a resource hub and training centre for other day care centers. The only thing left to do now is to raise the funds needed to build it! Donate here

Kick4Life: Stadium of Life

We are very excited to be partnering with the social enterprise Kick4Life based in Maseru who are committed to social change by tranforming lives through the power of sport.

Having been involved in the design and construction of Phases I & II of Kick4Life’s Football for Hope Centre and social enterprises No 7 Restaurant and Hotel & Conference, we are thrilled to have been chosen to design and construct the Stadium of Life.

An artificial 11-a-side football stadium which will be the world’s first football stadium purpose built for social change.

The Stadium of Life will include a range of facilities dedicated to enhancing the health, education and employment prospects of disadvantaged young people in Lesotho as well as integrating a number of unique environmental features.

Learn more about the project here

Ha Sekantsi Community: Construction of Footbridge

We are so excited to announce that we have partnered with Possible Dreams Foundation working with 300 community members of the beautiful Ha’ Sekantsi community to build a much needed footbridge over the Likolobeng river. Several people have died trying to cross the river over the years.

Watch this short video to understand why this bridge is so desperately needed by the community.

The bridge will enable year-round access for the children to get to school. At the moment they are at the mercy of the often impassable river and walk 4 hours to get there and back.

The bridge will also allow community members to access essential healthcare services and the market which they rely on in order to earn a living.

The bridge project is possible thanks to funding from J Portelli Projects.

We hope that once the bridge is successfully completed, if we are able to raise enough funds, the next project will be to build a community learning center that will include a pre-school, a night school for the herd-boys as well as an adult education centrer and medical outreach facilities. This will mean that the 43 children of the village can access their right to an education. Many children are not able to go to school as they have to look after the animals in the fields and those that do get there, are often unable to concentrate due to hunger and exhaustion.

in loco fellowship: Lesotho 2019

An Architecture, Construction & Entrepreneurship Program

in loco 2019: was a live Design & Build Entrepreneurship Program that ran from August 2019 to January 2020.

A cohort of 13 recently graduated Basotho students from local Architecture and Construction Schools participate in this innovative fellowship program.

The parent-led association, IDAL (Intellectual Disability & Autism Lesotho) represents and protects the rights of individuals with intellectual disability in Lesotho. rise’s mission was to transform a 10,000sqm section of arable land in Ha Bua Sono, about 20 kms outside of the capital of Maseru, into an educational and sensory wonderland for youth with intellectual disabilities and autism to learn life and social skills as well as how to run small businesses in a safe and therapeutic setting.

Watch this short video on the Participatory Design Workshop with IDAL which is how we got to the final designs of the Centre.

This project was largely made possible thanks to funding from Standard Lesotho Bank.

in loco: Lesotho 2018

An Architecture & Construction Program

in loco: is a live design, build & entrepreneurship training program. The pilot of the first cohort ran from February to December 2018. A cohort of 20 recently graduated Basotho students from local Architecture and Construction Schools participated for the duration of the program.

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God’s Love Centre

An Entrepreneurship & Work Skills Development Program

In 2018, rise designed & constructed a new building for the God’s Love Centre orphanage in Lesotho, Southern Africa using the in loco approach, a hands-on design and building experience, focused on knowledge exchange, capacity building, cooperation and development.

This, combined with entrepreneurship training, will enable the orphanage to become more self-sustaining by launching income generating activities.

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