Team Botswana is very glad to announce the opening of the South East Football for Hope Centre in the village of Ramotswa.

The opening ceremony held on February 19th represented the closure of a year and half of hard work to get this project built and the beginning of a new life for the centre and SEDYEA the centre host.

Congratulation to Design Fellow Elisa Engel and the whole team! The beautiful project responds to community needs and brings a new work of art to the town.

We are very proud to announce yet another opening in the Football for Hope family as the Manica Football for Hope Centre officially opened its doors. The impressive mono-block building sits beautifully in a beautiful landscape. Design Fellows Alina Jeronimo and Paulo Fernandes have done an incredible job throughout the design and construction process: holding meetings with the community; designing a low-impact building; training local workers in a compressed earth block building technique; supervising the construction site; and hosting a native tree planting workshop.

We would like to warmly compliment them and the whole team on another job well done.

More games are ON in South Africa as another Football for Hope Center, QwaQwa, is complete. Centre host loveLife moved into the building February 07, 2013, however now that the accompanying football pitch is fully installed, the organization can run their programs. LoveLife tackles gender inequity, the spread of HIV, and social exclusion, leveraging football as means of gathering and learning.

Design Fellow George Kinuthia, who worked with community partners, developed the design, and oversaw construction of the Centre, sent us his insight from the opening day:

On this beautiful summers day, the humble, mostly quiet settlement of Thibela was graced by yet another notable milestone event - the Football for Hope (FFH) Centre opening ceremony....

Another Football for Hope center, Mogalakwena (aka Mokopane), opened its doors (and its turf) on March 08, 2013. About 250 people attended the event on International Women’s Day, and the first players to hit this field -- all girls.

It is with great sadness that we share the news that Nathan Jones, one of our design fellows on the Football for Hope program, died on Tuesday in Cameroon where he was helping to build a community center.

The family, with help from Nathan’s colleagues, has prepared a website to celebrate Nathan’s life and achievements.

Remembering Nathan Jones

To share your memories of Nathan on this page, please email us.

The incredible Kimisagara Football for Hope center is nominated for Educational Building of the Year by Arch Daily, the worlds' most read architecture site. Check out the project and vote here

The center is just one of 20 designed and built by Architecture for Humanity in partnership with streetfootballworld and FIFA as legacy programs from the 2010 World Cup.

You may have heard of the Open Architecture Network. It's the online, open-source platform we use to post all of our projects, and track their progress. The OAN (now transitioning to an expanded platform called Worldchanging) is a Design Fellow's best friend...unless you're Nathan Jones.

Nathan is leading design and construction of the Besongabang Football for Hope Centre in Cameroon. In the heart of the Cameroon jungle. Limited access to internet and intermittent electricity outages "come with the territory" of being a Design Fellow, but Nathan surely feels the heaviest brunt of these limitations. Where he works there may not be power for days, and he does as much as he can on a charged laptop before it winds down, and uploads images to the project page when the opportunity arises. He's also know around headquarters for relying on his satellite phone when email's out.

But Nathan's found a way to bring his work to the world...and to bring the Open Architecture Network to Besongabang.

Headquarters has recently devised and established a new tracking tool for the six Football for Hope centres now in construction in Botswana, Tanzania, Cameroon, and South Africa (2), and Mozambique. The device is analog, occupying a field with metered imaging–we're stoked to use tech lingo (or our closest approximation) from the heart of San Francisco. Some HQ members are calling the device a "race track," but a more precise name would be "progress wall." For Humanity.

Kimisagara Football for Hope Centre was officially inaugurated on October 4th by the Rwandan Minister of Sports and Culture, Mitali Protaiswith with a ribbon cutting and place unveiling ceremony. Several local representatives were present, with some of FIFA and streefootballworld leaders and our former Design Fellow Killian Doherty representing Architecture for Humanity.

The rumors are true. The Football for Hope program is working at full speed. One month after the official start of construction, the game is really on. Foundations are in and walls are going up. Door frames are just in at the South East center in Botswana. Congrats to all the teams.

Three more projects have just gone out to tender and construction is estimated December 1st. Stay tuned for more updates!

The Manica Football for Hope Centre just broke ground, a very important tradition and event in Mozambique. Design Fellows, Paulo Fernandes and Alina Jeronimo give us their insight:

Construction season in Africa has officially arrived!

Five Football for Hope sites just broke ground. Fences are in and foundations are being dug in Botswana and Tanzania. The thick jungle is being (responsibly) cleared to make room for a center in Cameroon. More site prep is underway in Mozambique – all by hand. And, while at this point, one might expect to see the rover in Mokopane, the stones will be cleared, the playing field leveled and the new home for the South African Red Cross Society (SARCS) built.

ArchDaily started September by featuring a landmark center of hope and cultural reconciliation in Kigali, the hub of past Rwandan unrest. While civil war has been quelled now nearly 20 years, the densely-populated Kimisagara valley is still addressing cultural differences and reconciliation.

Local NGO Esperance, through the Architecture for Humanity-executed Football for Hope Centre, now has its own space to run cultural and athletic programs, education and first aid courses, sustainable practices and leagues of youth participating in friendly competition, out of a community center with amazing contextual clarity, visibility and materiality.

See more of ArchDaily's coverage of the Centre, including some neat //exclusive// time-lapse .gifs from design fellow Killian Doherty.

Upcoming Events

It's difficult some times to related the experience of the Design Fellow. Oliver Kienzi, working on the Kalebuka Football for Hope Centre in Lubumbashi, DR Congo, sheds light on his day-to-day–familiar circumstances for anyone designing architecture in the more technologically-inaccessible corners of the world.

Hats off to our design fellows for doing what they do - some sort of design superheros with laptops and tolerances for humidity, brownouts, and the occasional two-hour bus ride to a cancelled meeting. Design for humanity: easier said than done.

Compressed Earth Blocks training in Manica.

Design Fellows by day, masons by night, Alina Jeronimo and Paulo Fernandes, are hosting a “how to make earth bricks” workshop in Mozambique. Providing skills training, the bricks produced will support the Manica Football for Hope Center.

Paulo and Alina give us their insight and reasons for the training:

Last Friday, on July 20th, the Football for Hope Ramotswa centre project had its ground breaking ceremony.

SEDYEA members, Ramotswa city council members, teachers from local schools, the local police and of course the community all gathered around the contractor and a council representative to celebrate the start of construction.

The event was covered by Botswana TV (it made it to the national news, just after Nelson Mandela's birthday) and was published in Boidus, a magazine focusing on architecture in Botswana.

Construction has been going on since early May at the QwaQwa Football for Hope Centre site, and after a few delays due to deliveries of windows and doors coming late, the building is finally rising up and should be reaching roof level in a few days.

Design Fellow George Kinuthia is following up closely the site work. Hopefully construction should be finished in a couple of months.

Design Fellow Nathan Jones, working on the UAC Football for Hope Centre in Besongabang, Cameroon, doesn't usually get mail like this.

Last month, a large but light wooden package was hand-delivered from Cape Town via Design Fellow Mark Warren. Safely wrapped inside was a basswood replica of the soon-to-be-built Centre, made by volunteers at Architecture or Humanity headquarters in San Francisco.

You could say the Fellows were tickled...as were the construction and community partners, and the model quickly made the rounds in Besongabang, as captured in Nathan and Mark's field video of thanks:

Yes we finally pinned up the 20th (and last one) Football for Center on our Africa map!
The center will be located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It will host the activities of the organization: Sport -the Bridge, which is working on street children reintegration into their families and public school in Addis Ababa using elements of sport pedagogy.

Two months ago, on their trip to Lubumbashi, the Architecture for Humanity team was given an outstanding welcoming by the young girls of the Georges Malaika Foundation's school for girls.

Design fellow Oliver Kienzi was there on an initial visit to start working on the center #18 of the Football for Hope campaign. The Kalebuka FFH Centre is part of the development of the Georges Malaika Foundation's facilities in the Kalebuka community, outside of Lubumbashi, second largest city of the Democratic Republic of Congo, located in the Southeaster part of the country.

Finally, after long months of tendering and negotiations, construction has started at our project site in QwaQwa! The QwaQwa Football for Hope Center, is getting its foundations built right now and should be completed in early September.

We are really pleased to announce the opening of the sixth Football for Hope Center in Oguaa, Ghana.

The center was officially inaugurated in Cape Coast on 24 March, and the ceremony was a great success among the local representatives and the whole community. Over 200 children attended the ceremony and participated in the activities proud of their beautiful new T-shirts.

Following up with our project in Mozambique: Paulo and Alina moved to site two months ago. Between settling down, chasing money transfers between banks and preparing their Tender package, they also started working on the Compressed Earth Block (CEB) production!

Manica Football for Hope Center in Mozambique is part of the Phase 3 of the Football for Hope program, an initiative between FIFA and streetfootballworld to build 20 centers by 2013 with the objective of using football to promote social change.

As we move along with the Football for Hope program, communities around Africa are welcoming new design fellows moving closer to their site to work hand by hand with the local consultants and center hosts to further develop the project.

Themba has just relocated to Mokopane, Limpopo in the northern part of South Africa. He is working with the local Red Cross, the center host of the project to create a space that communicates and engages with the community of Mogalakwena.

To follow up with some news from our design fellows on the ground, after Cameroon, Mozambique, Botswana, here are some updates from Alma who relocated at the beginning of February to Tanzania.

The Football for Hope program aims to build 20 centers around Africa by 2013. Up to now we have 19 centers allocated and started, so there is only one to go!

Our office in Cape Town is slowly emptying as our Design Fellows are moving to their project sites. January and February have seen Elisa moving to Botswana, Alma to Tanzania and Themba is leaving this week for Mokopane in Limpopo region of South Africa.

The Football for Hope program is moving forward with two new projects in Democratic Republic of Congo and Mauritania. Welcome to Oliver Kienzi and Ana Ramos our design fellows for these projects!

Here are some updates from Botswana. More to come.

We are very pleased and honored to announce the practical completion of our Football for Hope centers in Rwanda and Ghana. Both of the centers are completed and awaiting the very last details for the Center Hosts to move in. Both projects are a unique example of how a thoughtful design and attention to materials and details can create beautiful buildings empowering their communities.

Nathan on his way to the project site in Cameroon!

The holidays haven't been that quiet for the Football for Hope Program!
During the last month, four of our Design Fellows have relocated from Cape Town to their project sites to work closely with the community to refine the design and tender documents.
From designing for the humidity of a Cameroon jungle (which can cause a camera to explode) to the green farmland of Mozambique to the rough and tumble of Alexandra township, each project is a graceful response to the site.

Every day, Architecture for Humanity Design Fellow George Kinuthia works hand-in-hand with the loal community in Qwa Qwa, South Africa to assist them in designing and building the Football for Hope Centre there. In the video below, George outlines some of the challenges in the participatory process, such as figuring out land tenure, to some of the highlights, like boosting local leadership skills.

"Being a Design Fellow is tough but also really rewarding," George says in this 45-second video.

We are really pleased and excited to announce the opening of the Lesotho Football For Hope Centre. The ceremony was held last Saturday, September 24th when the centre was officially opened by the centre host.

We are moving on to the Phase III of the Football For Hope program with the start of 7 new projects.

There have been some big developments with the Football for Hope Program over the past month. Construction on the centers in both Rwanda and Ghana is progressing well, with practical completion expected in the next few months.

This weekend we received word from Design Fellow Killian that the Kimisagara Football for Hope Centre has reached the roofline. This means that our partner Esperance is just few weeks away from moving into their new center.

The organization uses football as a tool for reconciliation, but also to facilitate life skills training and education for Rwandan youth. The proposed centre is located within the heart of the Kimisagara valley; the most densely populated, disadvantaged area in central Kigali with few opportunities for young people and alarming school dropout rates.

Client: Esperance
Project Partners: streetfootballworld and FIFA
Field by Greenfields, Solar Lighting by Yingli Solar
Architectural Designer and Design Fellow: Killian Doherty
Additional Support: Tiffany Lau, Seung Jin Ham, Rui Peng

Check out our design fellow in the field, Axel Stelter's, last video update which includes a walk through of the now inhabited building.

Construction at the Oguaa Football for Hope Centre is progressing well. Our design fellow in the field, David Pound, reports that the scaffold frame, container alterations, and roof trusses are completed. The installation of bamboo which will form the exterior shading skin will commence shortly.

Kimisagara Football for Hope Centre is in its 5th week of construction. They've cleared several thousand cubic metres of soil and are now commencing with the columns and brickwork. Rwanda's geographical limitations and access to standard building material is causing some problems however with no two bricks being the same size. This has proven a nightmare for our design fellow in the field, Killian Doherty. He believes that Rwanda needs to embrace adobe and earthwork construction as a potential solution to this problem.

Kick4Life, the centre host, has moved into the new Football for Hope Centre in Lesotho. While there are still a few minor touches to finish up on the interior and exterior of the main building, such as connection of the main sewer line, finish work, and kitchen installation, it is almost complete.

Construction has started on the Football for Hope Center in Oguaa, Ghana. So far the site has been leveled and graded with concrete work on the substructure for the containers well under way. Once the containers, that will provide the interior spaces, have been delivered and the concrete supports have cured they can begin to be installed.

In addition, the bamboo which will make up the exterior skin has begun to be harvested.

Meanwhile the selection process has begun for the local Oguaa Street League that will use the new soccer pitch.

The bulk of construction work on the center is scheduled to wrap up by late August. For more information visit the project's project page.

Design Fellow Axel Stelter has sent us a video update from the field. Check out the latest progress on the Lesotho Football for Hope Centre in Maseru, Lesotho.

The Football for Hope program, Architecture for Humanity’s partnership with Streetfootballworld and FIFA to develop centres throughout Africa is progressing well. Its aim is to achieve positive social change by building 20 Football for Hope Centres, which provide public health, education, and football throughout Africa. The centers are being developed in disadvantaged areas in order to improve education and health services for the local community.

The success of the centres are showing in their impact on the local community. In Nairobi, MYSA, the centre host, has over 1500 teams in their football league. At Khayelitsha, the Siyakhona Project, a program sharing the space with Grassroots Soccer, is producing professional quality films made by Township residents. This Broadens the educational impact of the centre from sports, leadership, and health to include film making.