From Pisa the project for a new school in Senegal
From Pisa to Africa to give a right that should be fundamental and guaranteed to all the children of the world: that of education. And so the dream of building a school in Senegal has a chance to become a reality.
The idea of Ibrahima Dieng, who works in the historic Pisan Cicli Papini shop on the Arno river, in fact met the architect Marco Biondi, who made himself available to donate the project together with Studio Galantini, Paolo Galantini, Anna Ochalek, Silvia Silvaroli.
Ibrahima arrived in Pisa 18 years ago and was recommended by the city of the Tower. Thanks to the owners of the historic shop, he settled down and bought a house. Ibrahima is now thinking of those who have been left behind, with the awareness that often in Africa the right to education is an authentic mirage and when schools are present they have unsuitable and precarious structures. Building a school in Africa means giving new and different perspectives to children who often have no other perspective than to emigrate in search of a future.
Last Thursday at the Garibaldi workshops what has become more than an idea was presented: to build a high school in Gagnick, where there are only middle and elementary schools.
“The children have to go to bigger cities once they reach 13-14, but away from family members they don’t even have food, so they stop. During my last trip the mayor of my town had asked me for a hand. I I replied that I would try, the Italian people are very good. Furthermore, creating a school complex opens up new perspectives and gives a different future” underlines Ibrahima.
The project takes into account local materials, such as adobe bricks, reducing concrete to a minimum, which is an inexpensive material, but also not very suitable for the temperatures of those latitudes. African red earth then, instead of concrete. Greater resistance to heat, less energy expenditure and a favor for the planet: cement accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The earth creates a very high resistance to sound and heat. When temperatures rise in Senegal, concrete buildings are saved thanks to air conditioning. And they pollute. Instead, the experience of earth constructions has shown that the temperature can naturally drop by even 6°.
Furthermore, the school is made with a double roof which serves to protect from the heat and rain and a natural ventilation system.
“Five buildings, 8 planned classrooms that can be opened and which can therefore also accommodate 50 students, there will be laboratories, a computer room and common areas, at the center of the project a volume that will house the library which will be open to the whole community of the country and not only to students, because the school must have maximum permeability with the town and its inhabitants to encourage the social feature of the project” explains Ibrahima Dieng.
The project has been supported and encouraged by many supporters: Caritas with don Emanuele, the Cisl, the CGIL, the Waldensian Church, Rita Luchi, the former Inspector Micheletta and Cecchini heart with Fabrizio Bonino who has already been to Africa to teach using the defibrillators donated through the non-profit organization and with the support of the newspaper La Nazione.
Also present on the day were Federico Oliveri who will organize an online fundraiser and will act as a bridge with the university, President Casto (Mbaye Ndiouck) and the former president (Embaye Diop), that of the Senegalese community in Pisa (Abdoulahat Pene).
Even the Province of Pisa, with the president Massimiliano Angori, has made itself available to support the initiative. The iban to donate is: IT80G0306914010100000008926, made out to the Waldensian Evangelical Church of Pisa, causal ‘School in Senegal’.