Connecticut
ACE Connecticut Helps African Children
When Bright Star Vision, a support organization based in West Hartford, Conn., told students in Hartford’s ACE affiliate that kindergarteners in a remote African village had to attend classes conducted under a tree, the students responded by designing a three-room schoolhouse. And within a year, workers in Dalivé, Ghana, were using the team’s design to begin building the village’s first kindergarten.
Meeting weekly for nearly four months, the team worked with its mentors – architects, engineers and construction managers from top local firms – to create detailed drawings and plans. After researching Dalivé’s environment and culture, the students designed the building so local breezes could flow through it and keep the children comfortable in Ghana’s hot, equatorial climate. Furthermore, wherever possible, the team specified local construction materials.
On March 20, 2007, villagers turned out to celebrate the groundbreaking for the new Dalivé kindergarten. The ACE team, which is comprised of students from high schools in Hartford, Newington, Somers and West Hartford, also contributed school furniture and supplies. Beyond the project’s educational benefits, it is helping the village economy by providing employment for local construction workers and teachers.
The students’ humanitarian commitment and quality of work helped the Hartford affiliate win the national organization’s “Affiliate of the Year” award, as well as the CT Green9 award for sustainable construction.
