Julia Davatzes

Julia Davatzes is a current graduate student at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. She is pursuing her M.A. in International Development Studies with concentrations in Humanitarian Assistance and Community Resilience. She previously earned her B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Virginia. Before beginning her graduate program, she worked for a disaster management company in the United States, helping communities to build resilience to disasters, as well as serving on active disaster deployments. Julia is very excited to be supporting the work of the Gulu Disabled Persons Union and Women in Action for Women in northern Uganda this summer.



WASH at Kulu Opal: Foundations and Floors

29 Jul

This is a well overdue update on construction efforts at Kulu Opal! Emma, other GDPU staff, and I visit the school twice a week to monitor construction. As soon as the pit was done, the Contractor and his team began lining the pit with bricks and concrete. They also started laying the foundation for stance walls and exterior building walls.

 

The brick and concrete lining of the latrine pit and wall foundation.

 

Then, the bricks in the pit were covered with a smooth layer of concrete and they built up the wall bases. You can see the construction crew in the pit in the photos below.

 

The crew covering the pit and wall foundation with concrete.

 

Once those were complete and dry, the crew covered the base with a slab of concrete, leaving latrine holes for each stance. The large hole on the left side of the photo below is the connection point to the pit so that it can be drained once it is full.

 

The completed concrete slap with holes for each stance.

 

Over the last month, Emma, I, the interns, and other GDPU staff have been hard at work making liquid soap. This soap will be given to Kulu Opal at the handover ceremony and is sold to past GDPU beneficiary schools at a reduced cost.

 

Daniel, Crispus, and I mixing the ingredients for soap.

 

Crispus and I packaging the soap into jerrycans and supervisor Emma looking on.

 

Skim through the following photos below to see a summary of the construction progress! The next major step will be the wall and roof construction.

Kulu Opal project progress on July 2.

 

Kulu Opal project progress on July 4.

 

Kulu Opal project progress on July 9.

Posted By Julia Davatzes

Posted Jul 29th, 2024

2 Comments

  • Iain Guest

    July 29, 2024

     

    Having seen the deplorable state of toilets at this school last summer, I really like this blog!!! In addition to building these new toilets, I hope they can also get rid of the old buildings, some of which that date back to the 1990s and pose a huge risk to students. Super photo of you stirring the soap. Such a deft touch, Julia!

  • Mary Ellen Cain

    August 5, 2024

     

    It looks like you all have made great progress on the latrines, Julia! And it’s good to see that you’ve learned so much about soap-making!

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