Scroll down for a progress update!
Our Boys’ Dormitory is in Bad Shape
The Boys’s Dorm, which also functions as our kitchen, our dining hall, and our garage, is very old. It was the original building which we used when we started HBS in 2010. It was in very bad shape when we purchased the property, but it was the best we could afford. We did what we could at the time to stabilize the structure and make it safe and livable for our students and staff.
The images below are from when we first purchased the property in 2010. As you can see, it was in rough shape.
After investing several thousand dollars in renovations, we had a very usable building with which to start Hope Boarding School:
Here is one of our first classes of HBS students showing off their new t-shirts and sunglasses, donated by friends in America:
Since then we have made continual repairs, renovations, and expansions as we were able to. However, the building is so old and unstable that we are concerned that it might not survive a whole lot longer. We are especially concerned that it would not do well in the event of an earthquake, which is something that happens on a fairly regular basis in Southeast Asia.
Another big problem with the building happens when it floods in North Dagon, something that happens more and more often as the city infrastructure continues to degrade.
Each summer during rainy season we experience floods, and the foundation level of the old building is not high enough to keep the water out. This causes problems for us in many ways— our dining room and kitchen are on the ground floor of this building, as are the refrigerators and freezers. The flooding also causes problems with our well pumps.
We have been thinking about and praying about what to do with the Boys’ Dorm for many years. We are still praying and thinking about it. The building needs a complete overhaul, or better, to be demolished and rebuilt from the ground up. This would be, of course, a very expensive undertaking.
Would you please pray with us for this project? It is not something that we can start and work on a little at a time; we would need to have at least the majority of the funds on hand before we could even think about starting such a project.
God has been very faithful to supply all of our needs in the past, and we know that He will continue to supply what we need. We trust that in His proper time the necessary funds will be made available to us. Thank you for praying and trusting God with us about this project.
Progress Update:
Work began on the new building project with the demolition and removal of the old building in May, 2024. We hired some heavy equipment, but our students helped with a lot of the work in between their studies. They are very hard workers!
You can see from some of the photos below the poor condition of the wooden pillars that were holding up the old building.
After the old building was torn down and the rubble removed, work began on the new foundation. We chose the “pile” foundation method so that we could build up to six floors in total. The foundation work took several months, and was completed in September, 2024. To prepare for the heavy equipment needed to drive the concrete and steel piles deep into the ground, we had to cover the area with several layers of sandbags. Again, the HBS students helped tremendously!
We needed to block off the streets in order to get the heavy equipment into our neighborhood, so we had to do it at night.
Before the piling work started, though, we held a prayer meeting and asked God to bless the work and the workers, and and we prayed for safety and good weather.
Here are some random images of the foundation and ground floor construction progress. As of this date, the foundation has been completed, the ground floor and first floor pillars and slabs have been constructed and poured.
Stay tuned for more updates!
