He did not employ contractors
to build but used his own hand picked people. He said it may
take longer but it is cheaper and of better quality. As we visited
the site on Saturday afternoon all the workers were still working.
We were surprised to find women working in construction.
The entire lot is surrounded
by a stone wall to keep animals and viewers out.
area
By a special construction
all the buildings have a fantastic isolation: The inside wall
consists out of mud bricks, the outside wall are of concrete
bricks, in between tugs a layer of insulation. In Leh
there is actually no heating in living quarters despite temperatures
-°40 C. They do use kerosene heaters, but they are expensive.
With this great insulation the sun heats up the buildings during
daytime and keeps the rooms moderately warm during night. People
sleep in small bedrooms that do not cool down so much.
Hostel
The Home for the Handicapped “The Enablement Centre”
When we asked Elisha why he built a home fort he disabled without having
any qualified personal to take care of the sick, he just smiled.
The planning of the building
shows farsightedness and knowledge: 4 large sunlight therapy
rooms gather around a large meeting and centre room in the first
floor. Two toilets and one administrative room are located each
in the first and second floor. Both floors are accessible by
a ramp – perfect for wheelchairs! Nowhere are
there any
thresholds. The
use for the gigantic Basement is as storage, machine room and
handicraft for apprenticeship. The graduates from the Moravian Mission School find a chance for vocational training there. They
will also construct furniture and aids for the disabled.
The first floor will be reserved
fort he handicapped and their parents. In the morning the families
will be picked up by special busses from their residences and
will be brought back home in the evening. The parents will provide
food for their children during the day. There will be no cooking
for the disabled at the “Enablement Centre”. The main activities
will concentrate during winter since the locals spend most of
their time during summer working in the fields. A therapeutic pool is to be located between
the Centre and the girl’s hostel. We help Elisha
with the plans for this unique construction.
Again and again Elisha mentions that the Campus will NOT be a resident living
place fort he disabled, but a place of special care. He
says: „We are caring, not
curing“. The families are to helped through information, encouragement
and practical help to understand the basic principles of therapy
needed, and then to look for ways to adapt the therapy to the
child’s and family’s daily life. They are to be supported with
practical aids and they may come back year after year for help.
The second floor is a place
of teaching. The rooms will be used for the physiotherapist
school and various vocational training of the graduates of the
Moravian Mission School. The goal is a cooperative work of all vocations.
The terrain
During the planning the strategic
location of the various buildings was given a lot of thought.
The girl’s hostel is located close to the “Enablement Centre”.
Elisha says that the girls usually
show more compassion with the sick children and will love to
be involved. The boy’s hostel is located farther away nearby
the guesthouse and the vegetable gardens. They will be able
to help water and care for the gardens. Both
hostels are fitted with solar showers.
A reservoir for 330.000 litre
of Water has been built on the terrain. It will catch the overflow
of the glacier melt and provides water for the gardens for three
months. 100 feet deep was found a well with an excellent quality
of drinking water.
On top of the flat roofs of
the individual buildings one may see big black water tanks.
With solar heat they produce wonderful warm water for daily
use.
The windows of the buildings
are planned in such a way, that the sun will find them very
easily during the winter and send all its warmth into the inside
of the building and heat them up.
The supply road for the buildings
leads around the compound and not through it. The children are
not to be endangered and disturbed by playing and sporting on
the sport fields and gardens.
A very exiting plan for the
year 2005 is the planting of 5000-6000 shadowy trees on the
terrain.
trees in the area
The many rocks lying around
on the compound will not be carried away. They will be used
to border the roads, the gardens and to create a bit of funny
eye catchers.
