Spring exhibitions and festivals

We kicked off spring with our Kashitu School project – the construction of a secondary school in Zambia – by organizing a workshop on producing unburned bricks using a manual press. New volunteers who will be traveling to Zambia this year took part, giving them the chance to get familiar with the technology ahead of their departure and to experience firsthand how demanding it is to produce 30 bricks per hour. Spoiler: it's not that easy…

The bricks cured for a month in the courtyard of CTU (Czech Technical University), and then we loaded them, along with the brick press and exhibition panels, into a van and headed to Brno. Several of the volunteers in our team are alumni of Brno University of Technology (BUT), so they first set up the exhibition at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and later moved it to the Faculty of Architecture of the same university. In the meantime, the exhibition also made a short stop at the Architecture Festival held at the Brno Exhibition Centre.

While the brick press served mainly as decoration at the university faculties, it was fully in use at the Architecture Festival, where we demonstrated how to make sun-dried bricks using the manual press. Altogether, we held three public talks in Brno, which were well attended by students from both the mentioned faculties and beyond. We hope to have inspired new student volunteers who we'll be happy to welcome into the project.

After Easter, the exhibition returned to Prague, where a portion of it was displayed at the National Development Days on May 23. It's now waiting for its next use. So, where to next?

Easter Markets at ČEZ Headquarters

Before Easter, we took part in the Easter Markets at the headquarters of ČEZ, a.s. with our fundraising stall. As usual, visitors could buy honey from Kashitu, produced by local farmers, as well as products made by women in the sewing workshop and young carpenters from the carpentry workshop. At the stall, we also presented the goals of the project, this year's activities, and the latest news from Kashitu. This summer, in partnership with ČEZ, a.s., we'll bring light to the school campus in Kashitu by providing a reliable source of electricity for its operations.

"Children for the World" Festival

On Saturday, May 31, we took part in the Children's Day event at Prague's riverbank (Náplavka). Our project had its own booth, which attracted many curious children and adults. Visitors could try pressing their own unburned bricks and learn how school construction works in the African countryside. We shared stories from the field – how the school is growing, what it all involves, and how direct support can change the lives of the local community.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth!