Once the buildings are finished, our major project for the new children’s home will soon be complete—or so we thought at the beginning. But now that we’ve reached this point, we realize just how much work the final push still entails. Landscaping work during the rainy season presents certain challenges, and planning the interior design is taking longer than expected, but none of this is anything our amazing team can’t handle.

Over the past two months, we’ve been busy installing windows, screen frames, and doors. As a result, the houses now look pretty much finished—which brings us all great joy.

In addition, rain gutters were installed around all the roofs, the locations for rainwater collection systems were determined for each house, and all related installations were completed.

A construction site like this naturally generates a lot of dirt and waste. That’s why our all-rounder and construction manager, Masia, organized the first major cleanup of the house together with the children. They enjoyed the feeling of cleaning their new home together, and the thought of living there soon motivated them even more. Everyone had a task—whether it was clearing weeds from the property, mopping the floors, cleaning water tanks, or disposing of construction debris—and together they got it done.

For the landscaping work, we had a new planner who first needed to get to know the Maisha Bora team and their needs. Fortunately, our local architect, Laser, acted as an excellent intermediary and “translated” our wishes to the planner, so that after several attempts, the plans now suit Maisha Bora perfectly. During this phase, we realized once again that it is worthwhile to give people responsibility and trust them—and then they will do their best.

Here you can see one of the plans, which has been tweaked a bit further. But roughly like this (just with less concrete), the surroundings—with beautiful landscaping and a playground—should offer plenty of opportunities for the children to let off steam.

There’s a lot of digging and paving going on around the houses right now, and the old wheelbarrows are creaking under the heavy load as they’re pushed all over the site, filled with sand and pebbles. Since the property is on a slope, it took a lot of work to level out the ground.

The rainy season is intense and doesn’t exactly make things easy for the workers, but it also has its advantages. It allows the team on site to identify where there are leaks in the roofs or facades. Weak spots, such as the one in the outdoor kitchen, were discovered this way, and appropriate measures were taken immediately.

As you can see, we’re moving toward the end of the construction phase, one small step at a time.

Are you as excited about the final result as we are?

We can all look forward to it together—for the sake of our children, our staff, and the entire Maisha Bora NGO. The next and final construction update will be published in conjunction with the grand opening in July 2026.

Until then, we’re enjoying our beautiful, energizing tree, which is currently providing shelter with its green canopy.

The true meaning of life is to plant trees in whose shade you do not expect to sit. - Nelson Henderson