Unlike all of our other Innovation Hubs made from old shipping containers, the space we created in Mufakose is a beautiful, brick & mortar Hub built at the Gwinyiro Primary School in Mufakose, Zimbabwe. In partnership with the school, we took an old block which was being used for storage and transformed it into a magical place for wonder and curiosity.
Our first step was to clean out the entire school block – a feat that was accomplished swiftly with the support of the school administration staff and community members. Next, we knocked down the temporary dividing wall to give ourselves an open floor plan to work with.
Before long, we had tape on the ground, mapping out where the tables, walls, shelves and computers would all go. We even decided to knock out part of the back wall to create a private office. With all of our plans in place, it was time to start building.
After the the main structures were in place, we started working on optimizing and beautifying the Innovation Hub. We painted the bricks white, added the ceiling boards and started building the tables and shelves. Our goal was to create a beautiful, collaborative space where students and educators felt inspired to learn together.
We built one large table for the main workspace with countertops going along the walls and private work stations in the main corridor. We also created a semi-private classroom for the youths that would be learning in our Hub.
From start to finish, this space took us about three weeks to build. We would have loved to spend more time on the renovation but we had a Search Inside Yourself Fellow from Google visiting and preparing a workshop for 60+ students. We needed the space to be ready to host the workshop, and things really went down to the wire.
At the end of the day, we were able to create something really special. The experience was all the more meaningful because so many Uncommon team members and students came together to help finish the job – sanding, painting and cleaning up the space.
Today, the Mufakose Innovation Hub stands apart from our other Hubs in that it’s the only brick & mortar space we’ve built. Since launching in early 2020, we’ve hosted some of Zimbabwe’s most renowned CEOs and Business leaders and have educated 1,000s of children.
Thank you to everyone that has supported the Mufakose Innovation Hub!
We launched our 2024 Mufakose Bootcamp in January. If you are interested in joining our next intake, please fill out our application form. Priority will be given to early applicants. Thanks and good luck!
While our after school programs are entirely free for our partner government schools, we offer paid courses to private & charter schools to help subsidize the costs of our free program. Please get in touch if you’d like to bring coding to your school.
