After the General Conference, the trenches for the building foundation will start to be dug. The trenches will range in depth from one meter deep to over two meters deep. There is a lot of digging to be accomplished, about 180 meters in total. This comes out to about to potentially 200 cubic meters of dry, hard soil needing to be dug… by hand. After about half of the trenches are dug, the concrete footers can be poured, and then the bricklayers can be brought back in. However, once the trenches are dug, money will be necessary for the materials to be purchased. The broken down costs of the estimated materials to bring the building up to slab level are found below:
Building Footer (estimated total cost = $7,270)
260 bags of cement: $4,110
40 metric tons of sand: $350
56 metric tons of stone: $1,350
1 Roll of A142 steel mesh: $710
Ant/termite Poison: $750
Building Foundation walls (estimated total cost = $8,375)
110 bags of cement: $1,740
19 metric tons of sand: $160
32 bags of lime: $120
35,000 brick: $1,200
Brickforce: $75
Reinforcing steel for column bases: $5,080
Concrete slab (estimated total cost = $18,160)
575 bags of cement: $9,090
85 metric tons of sand: $700
125 metric tons of stone: $2,970
6 rolls of A142 steel mesh: $4,250
6 rolls of DPM (damp proof membrane): $750
Ant/termite poison: $400
A couple of videos have also been made. The first is a video made for a vacation Bible school whose special project for the week was to provide money for bricks.
The second video gives a good summary of the project history, given by some of the church leaders.
If you would like and are able to provide a part of the Malawi BIC Church Center foundation, please don’t hesitate to donate. You can donate online at http://www.bic-church.org/wm/give/partnership/malawi/ and scrolling down to "Maone Church Center." You can also send a check written out to BICWM with “Maone Church Center” in the memo line, and sent to either BICWM, PO Box 390, Grantham, PA 17027 or BICWM, 2700 Bristol Circle, Oakville, ON L6H 6E1.
