The Future in Tichendeal

After the major success in completing the educational center in the village of Tichindeal in Romania, we have decided to take on a new project. This project will involve the same group of students and teachers from Noorderpoort, Alfa College and Terra MBO from Groningen and Meppel. We will be building small houses for the people of Tichindeal starting this year, 2020.  

From our previous project, our aim was to build an educational center. This building provides the chance for the children of Tichindeal to receive an education. The building is also used for afterschool teaching. This is to further enhance the importance of education and support children and their families.  
The education center sets the standards of clean sanitation as it contains baths, showers and toilets. We hope to set these standards also for our new project involving the building of small houses.  

Our plan for these houses, is to build them using organic, sustainable materials. This material is called “hemp”. Hempcrete is a natural building material with excellent qualities. It is breathable and has exceptional thermal performance. We contacted a company situated in Belgium who harvest the hemp. Harvesting hemp takes time as it is a seasonal plant. This company was ideal for us, as they prepare the hemp into bricks for the start of the build. We hope to spend the next 5 to 10 years building these small houses in the village of Tichindeal.  

We have spent the start of the year designing plans with an architect. These designs are available to view below. We have prepared a rotation system for this project. There will be 3 groups in total. The first, will be working on the building of the houses. The second group will focus on the remaining work left in the educational center such as the first floor. The third group have the responsibility to complete small fixes such as window adjustments, adding screws. The locals from the village will have the foundation layer of concrete completed before the students and teachers fly out to begin work. 
In April 2020, project manager s Frank Broeders and Hans Buissink will fly out to Romania and liaise and negotiate with the Mayor on the plans for the building of the houses. In May, work for the students will begin.