Expressions of Interest sought: pro bono design services for the Ligingi Community Learning Centre, Uganda

UPDATE: The deadline for EOI's has been extended until 14 December 2012 due to the silly season...we know things get a bit crazy this time of year, so thought we'd give you an extra week. Thanks to everyone who has already expressed interest - we'll review all applications after the extended date.

 

Architects for Peace, in partnership with the Ligingi Community Learning Centre (LCLC), are excited to invite Expressions of Interest for pro bono services to design a new community centre to house LCLC operations  in the village of Ligingi, Uganda.  

Views of the existing brick building on the LCLC site

The LCLC is a not-for-profit community based organisation, that aims to foster community knowledge and competencies to adapt, thrive and actively engage in a rapidly changing world. The LCLC was co-founded by Ugandan, Dennis Obel and Australian, Anna Trembath in conjunction with the Ligingi community. Dennis, a highly-experienced international development professional, is ancestrally of Ligingi village. Some of his immediate family members still live in Ligingi, and he calls all the people of Ligingi his kin and Ligingi his true home.  Anna is an experienced researcher with particular expertise in gender and development, an international development practitioner and a writer. Dennis and Anna travel regularly to Ligingi and will be the primary conduits for communication between the architect/s engaged for this project and the Ligingi community.

Ligingi is a small and beautiful village, located in eastern Uganda, around 45 kilometres from the Uganda-Kenya border. The village is primarily a subsistence farming community, in a remote location with no electricity or water and sanitation infrastructure, and very little service provision or outside organisational presence. Ligingi is home to a number of different clans who are all J’opadhola people, a Luo-speaking tribe associated with the Nilotics who migrated from Sudan in the sixteenth centry. A recent survey revealed the village population to be 2,959. 

The proposed Centre is planned to be used as the organisational premises for the LCLC, including a community space for learning, training and other programmatic activities, and accommodation for staff, volunteers and visitors.

The new premises will allow the LCLC to develop and expand the programs offered, and to better involve and inspire both Ligingi community members and international volunteers and guests. The LCLC represents a unique initiative to facilitate meaningful, community-driven change over the long term on a sustainable scale for a community whose members have limited future opportunities.

For further details on the LCLC project, please download the design brief and supporting documents here.  You can read more about Ligingi Community Learning Centre here.

Please email expressions of interest and CV detailing relevant project experience to
Katherine at probono@architectsforpeace.org by Friday 14^th December at 5pm Eastern Standard Time (EST).
  

The Architects For Peace pro bono policy, with important information for prospective service providers regarding the way the pro bono service works and the selection process involved, is available for download here. Please make sure you read over this document before submitting your expression of interest.

Community meeting at the Primary School, with the existing LCLC brick building behind