supported by The University of Notre Dame School of Architecture

On May 25th, 2010 8 University students, 6 from the University of Notre Dame and 2 from DePauw University, and a BT Staff member joined forces with Kyeitabya community members to begin construction on its ninth academy: the Building Tomorrow Academy of Kyeitabya. Kyeitabya is supported by the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture through the generosity of Matthew and Joyce Walsh. The Academy, designed by University of Notre Dame Architecture students, will be BT’s ninth in Uganda and construction is expected to take approximately 12 months. Once open, the BT Academy of Kyeitabya will join the nearly-completed BT Academy of Sentigi as the second location supported by the ND community.

Leaders in the Kyeitabya area have already demonstrated a fierce commitment to bringing a new, permanent school structure to their village. After BT passed up the location in 2008 on account of a poor access road and the high prices of land, a community mobilizing committee was established to remedy both situations. Eighteen months later, lay leaders effectively persuaded local authorities to grade the road, three acres of land were donated for the Academy and over 20,000 hours of labor were pledged to support construction efforts.

Kyeitabya is located 45km north of Kampala in Kiboga District. Approximately 450 children in immediate proximity of the Academy are currently without access to a permanently built classroom. The Academy will be BT’s second to be built using a newly-adopted interlocking soil-stabilizing block (ISSB) produced on site, entirely from local materials.