AIME high

At the Vanguard last night we not only listened to some great music (headliners Saving Grace ) but in the process raised money for what can only be described as an educational revelation!

Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) is one of those not-for-profit organisations that you can't help but be in awe of. The program partners university students with young indigenous students, from years 7-12. This unique, one-on-one education based mentoring program aims to improve year 10 and year 12 completion rates and university admission rates for all participating students.

Beginning in 2005 with just 20 students from Redfern, AIME is now looking to engage more than 1000 students and plan to expand into Victoria and Queensland in 2010. What a fantastic acheivement! Do take the time to check out their website, truly inspiring.

barefoot ball!

It is always encouraging to hear of others doing great work. Operating in Uganda, the United Future Foundation (UFF) focuses on making education and skills training available to youth living in poverty stricken areas.

UFF is hosting the Black Tie and Barefoot Ball (not bare football as I first read it to be... another fundraising idea perhaps?) on May 15th, at The Hilton, Sydney. We take our hat off to anyone who can get a function of this size up and running! So congratulations to both Annabelle and Dave and all the best guys for what is shaping up to be a fun-filled night, not to mention a worthy one!

You can find out more about UFF by visiting their website.

Friends of Rang'i

Rang'i Care Centre is an initiative set up to provide a home for orphaned children. The b+c team visited the children at Rang'i during our trip to Kenya and spent hours playing with all the amazing children. 

Amber has a long history with the centre having worked there in 2005. She and her fellow volunteers fell in love with the people and continue to show their support for the centre. They have recently set up the Friends of Rang'i blog so that everyone can be kept in the loop and read about the amazing work carried out at the centre. Here you can find out how to get involved, see photos, view the plans for the new school and read about inspiring people who grew up at Rangi' and are now achieving amazing results at college! 

You can also join the Rang'i Care Centre Facebook group.

We wish Rang'i all the best in the future and send all our love to all the gorgeous children who continue to inspire us all. 

project h

I've been meaning to post something about the fabulous work of Project H here for way too long. And unfortunately this isn't related to what I originally intended to tell you about! I'll save that for another post as telling you about the refresh project is more pressing!

Project H are an amazing non profit of designers and builders based in the US. I initially found out about their work when perusing the Architecture for Humanity projects and their innovative and fun playground at the Kutamba Aids Orphans School in Uganda. More on that later.

Emily Pilloton heads Project H and is about to take a year out to run a design/build curriculum in Bertie County School District in North Carolina - one of the US's most underprivileged areas. The course will combine design thinking, vocational trade training, and community citizenship to equip low-opportunity teenagers with critical creative problem solving skills for life. Students will collaborate to design, develop, and prototype a built community project. The following summer, they will be offered paid summer jobs to actually construct the project. How cool is that? Just amazing- I want to be a student in Bertie County!

So, Emily has entered the project in the Pepsi Refresh Project for the chance to be awarded $50,000 to kick start the first semester. You can help by voting every day until the end of February. They're currently in 15th place so every vote counts to get the project back in the top 10 where they'll grab the $50K!

You need to register to vote and then all you need is to click each day until the end of Feb - get voting everyone, this would be an amazing project to see come to fruition.

More on Project H and the Kutamba Aids Orphans School and Emily's new book very soon!

palette places

In the words of Miss Lush the world has gone palette-o-rama mad! I don't know about you but I seem to be seeing them all over! We love palettes so here are some of our top palette picks:

Amber's number 1, The Palettenhaus in Linz...

The Kinglake temporary village, constructed by Monash University students in consultation with Emergency Architects...

My personal fav, Mano Ponnambalam and Jenny Heim's ILLUMS BOX, a 2009 Sculpture by the Sea entry...

and lastly Section8 in Melbourne where thirsty vistors can lounge around and grab a drink from the shipping container bar (a container-o-rama blog will be featured next!)

The Social Studio

On a recent visit to Melbourne I stumbled across this great community concept. On first glance you expect this Smith Street studio to be just like any uber trendy cafe/clothing store that Melbourne so often delivers. However The Social Studio provides a unique opportunity for young refugees to not only use their style and skills to produce a clothing range but offers them emplyment, advice, encouragement, counselling and training.

At a time when it is becoming more and more important to reuse and recycle The Social Studio collects excess manufacturing material and reconfigures it into funky fashion! Take a look at their website, such a fantastic social enterprise!

category of culture

Peter Rich Architects have recently won the World Building of the Year award for the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre in South Africa at the World Architecture Festival held in Barcelona earlier this month.

This is an authentic, beautifully crafted and culturally deep rooted building. A very deserved winner I say.

More info and images can be found here.