Domus Mundi has committed itself to give technical support and advice to the not-for-profit organization Baladharshan for the construction of a primary school in Sulurpet.
Some final-year students of industrial engineering at KaHo Sint-Lieven in Ghent, including Jeroen Voet, have contributed to this project in the framework of their undergraduate dissertation, trying to find how an optimal interior climate can be guaranteed in an energy-saving and sustainable way, by using local techniques, building systems and materials, avoiding, for example, air conditioning.
The goal of the project is, first, to build nine classrooms and a polyvalent hall, that can also be used as a shelter during floods. After some years, two more floors will be added.
Context
Baladharshan is a project that focuses on the children of the poor village of Attakanithipa, about 40 miles from the city of Chennai, in the South-east of India. The village is surrounded by a lagoon that is separated from the eastern coast of India by a barrier that is only a few miles wide. Each year, the region is visited twice by the monsoon: in October and in June. The monsoon is preceded by devastating hurricanes and cyclones. The summers are very hot, with temperatures up to 45°C. In this region, drought and flood cost more than 5000 human lives each year.
For survival in these difficult conditions, the people of Attaknithipa depend on fishery and agriculture. Unfortunately, farmland is very unfertile there, and, except during the rainy season, only salty water can be pumped up, which causes the harvest to be of a very bad quality.
In 1999, a local theologian, called Robert Sunil, started the project, that, due to a lack of money, was restricted at first to the collection of clothes and the foundation of a nursing home. In 2001, however, the project gained momentum, when Bart De Wilde, a Belgian scientist, started a fund-raising in his hometown Hamme.
In order to give the children a better future, most investments go to education. Some years ago, a primary school was founded with the support of the Indian government. From their tenth year onwards, children go to another school outside the village. However, there, they have to pass an exam each year in order to be allowed to continue their studies. Lots of children do not succeed.
To enable those children to further educate themselves, a big school is being built in Sulurpet, a village more inland, at about 7 miles from Attakanithipa. In that school, children from the neighbouring villages will be instructed in English. In that way, they will be more likely to pass the exam, and they will still be able to continue their studies.
