PROJECTS

Ongoing

Hoops in Gomba. The first basketball court in the Gomba District

Year: 2026 - On going  | Location: Kanoni, Uganda | Partner: Friends of  Children in Gomba (FCG)

The project born from Andrea Lamperti, a sports journalist, basketball player and coach. After working working with the community of Kanoni and with Friends of Children in Gomba (FCG) for some time to contribute to the future of the many young people who live in this region, he came up with the idea of building the first public basketball court in this rural area of Uganda. A playground designed for the girls and boys of the community and for the district’s schools, a place for recreation, togetherness and inclusion, where new talents can be developed and explored. The project is sponsored by the Buganda Kingdom and has been designed and carried out together with the local community, representatives of the district’s schools, and the NGOs FCG. 

Why a basketball court? Because the game – both for men and women – is growing rapidly in Kampala and in other Ugandan cities that have facilities, but is still far from rural areas like Gomba. Here, in addition to football, another sport is played a lot – especially by girls, in and out of school: netball. It is a natural bridge to basketball and a perfect starting point to promote a sport without barriers.

The playground will be in a central position in Kanoni, on land granted by the Buganda Kingdom just a few steps from a public school and a football pitch. The goal is to create a new public, safe space, open to everyone; a meeting place to bring young people together through sport, but also dedicated to school and community activities. And to create new opportunities for talent development which, in the future – as already happens with football and netball – can translate into scholarships or invitations to more structured sports programmes.

You can support the project donating to the fundraising campaign here.

Toilet Block & Kitchen for Primary Themi School 

Year: 2024 - On going  | Budget: 28.000,00 €  | Award: Premio Alumni UIC Barcelona 2023 - Best Transformative Project | Partner: Friend of Arusha

3 billion people worldwide lack access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services, and at least 800 million children lack access to basic WASH services at school. In sub-Saharan Africa, this crisis is particularly severe in schools, where inadequate WASH infrastructure threatens students’ health, attendance, and learning outcomes. As of 2021, 45% of schools in the region had basic sanitation services, and 63% lacked hygiene facilities.

In Tanzania, the situation remains critical. Despite efforts to install WASH facilities, a 2018 School WASH assessment revealed that many schools still lack functional and sufficient infrastructure to meet students’ needs.Investments in the education sector prioritise improving educational infrastructure, overlooking the critical importance of investing in WASH infrastructures. The current lack of appropriate infrastructure not only impacts students' health and well-being but also affects attendance and academic performance.

Our project focus on Themi primary school in Arusha, with a total of 1.372 students with an urgent need of new and functional toilets and a appropriate kitchen to support the preparation of nutritious meals. For many students, especially those from low-income households, school meals are a vital source of daily nutrition. Without functional kitchens, food preparation is unsafe or inconsistent, impacting students’ concentration and well-being.

The projects involves the construction of these two key facilites. 

The new toilet block is a linear building recalling the shape of the existing toilet block. The new toilet block will have two wings with a total of 5 cubicles for girls, and 3 cubicles and urinals for boys. The design devotes particular care to the privacy issue, and specifically extra care is given to the girls’ wing to address the topic of menstrual health and hygiene (MHH). The school is equipped with plumbing/sewer infrastructure, for this reason the toilets are designed as flushing toilets; efforts will be made to reuse rainwater. The plan has been designed to ensure girls' and boys' privacy, with indipendent separate entrances. Several hand-washing points have also been designed to encourage hygiene among children. 

The new kitchen block is a standalone building aligned with the existing toilet blocks. The structure is designed to serve the cooking and food preparation needs of the School, accommodating large-scale meal production through bespoke concrete cooking units with integrated fire bricks and chimneys for smoke extraction. The plan is organised into two main zones: a cooking and washing area to the west, equipped with large cooking pots and washing facilities, and a preparation and serving area to the east. An enclosed storage room with independent access is provided at the eastern end of the building.

Both facilities will be built using sustainable and locally appropriate construction methods, such as Compressed Stabilised Earth Blocks engaging local workers (fundi) and using locally sourced materials where possible. This approach ensures not only cost-effectiveness and environmental responsibility but also community ownership and long-term sustainability.  

The WASH Goose Game 

Year: 2020 - Ongoing

Our work is also oriented to hygiene education, this is why we developed this goose game. Playing can foster learning and developing skills that are indispensable for everyday life. Its importance is such that even the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) recognises, in Article 31, the child's right not only to rest and leisure, but also to play and recreation. 

Our game aims to teach children between the ages of five and twelve the links between personal hygiene and health, based on the premise that hygiene practices are largely acquired during childhood. Play can be said to have two fundamental roles: promotional and educational. Hygiene promotion involves simple, positive and interesting messages. Hygiene education helps people to learn about water and sanitation behaviours, and especially the reasons why they lead to good or bad health. We are developing this project, hoping to implement it as soon as possible with the actual protagonists, the children! 

Completed

Classroom for Maji Moto Primary School

Year: 2019 - Completed | Budget: 16.000,00 €  | Volunteers: 20  | Local workers: 9

The project aims to renovate and expand the primary school of Maji Moto, considering that now there are 500 children and 6 classrooms. The classroom has been designed as a single architectural element, without forgetting that it will be part of a system. For this reason, it has been designed allowing potential further development consisting in an adjacent classroom with a wall in common to reduce costs and materials. To ensure ventilation and an adequate temperature in the classroom at all times, a false ceiling has been designed, in order not to have direct solar radiation, but also creating sound insulation. When it rains, the violent sound of water on the metal sheet is attenuated by the bamboo ceiling. The inclination of the roof has been studied according to the prevailing winds.

Competitions