Green-Works is an award winning social enterprise and registered charity dedicated to helping the environment by diverting redundant office and school furniture from landfill by providing reused and remanufactured furniture to small business, charities, schools and community groups whilst providing training and real work experience to the unemployed.

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Ensuring education for all: keeping kids learning

5 May 2010

Green-Works dedication to removing and reusing education furniture and equipment brings a tale of two very different schools affected by similar problems...

Hatcham Temple Grove Primary School

Following the devastating fire that broke out on 6 April at Hatcham Temple Grove Primary School in New Cross, South London the school was faced with an impossible dilemma:  with less than a week to do it how could they get the school back up and running ready for 300 children to come back to after the Easter break?

At this point Green-Works stepped in and working almost day and night found in excess of 900 items of furniture including 370 chairs, 30 bookcases made from recycled material and even a medical couch!

The school, part of the well known Haberdashers Federation, was undergoing a complete refurbishment when it was completely burnt out and all the furniture and equipment was lost.  It needed to create from scratch a new school as quickly as possible and for the minimum cost. The school needed everything from clocks, whiteboards and bins to storage units, tables and chairs to furnish 16 classrooms including a nursery and specialist ITC rooms, 6 offices, the staff room and a reception area.

Green-Works offered its services to replace as much of the items as possible, being able to fulfil such a large order in such a short space of time was major challenge, however pulling on all resources from the 4 Green-Works franchises across the country the order was met.

Having recently cleared out Southwark Primary School in Nottinghamshire, Broadfields School, Edgware and Jarrow School, Tyne & Wear, Green-Works were able to provide a range of specialist primary school furniture.

They very quickly identified an empty building that would be suitable but that left them just 4 days to source the furniture and equipment needed for 300 children and their teachers.

Nick Lewis the Facilities Manager for the Federation said "We were in a very difficult situation and Green-Works went a significant way to assist with our immediate needs and the short term recovery following the devastating fire at our New Cross primary school premises last week."

Colin Crooks CEO for Green-Works said this is one of our proudest achievements - we were set up precisely to help schools and charities with tough requirements and low budgets.  To think that the children won't miss a day of school as a result of our efforts makes all our efforts worthwhile.

Sierra Leone

Green-Works dedication to diverting furniture from landfill by finding projects and people who can continue to use this valuable resource has seen a strategic alliance setup in developing countries, specifically Sierra Leone where following a horrific civil war, 49% of the population are under 16 and in desperate need of equipment.

Much of the furniture removed from schools around the UK makes the journey via Green-Works to the Waterloo region of Sierra Leone where it provides a vital resource and impact on their local community in unimaginable ways.

Kulafai Rashideen Primary School has received a variety of furniture from Green-Works however the school is split between two buildings and still has a major requirement for more. The new building, funded by the Waterloo Partnership, was built last year and has been supplied with furniture, here the children are delighted to come to school and their studying has improved. However the old building, which due to pupil numbers is still in use, has holes in its corregated roofing, leaking during the rainy season; while some pupils are lucky to sit on wooden benches, many have to resort to sitting on rocks in order to avoid the muddy, wet floor, which doesn't even get chance to dry out during the dry season.   

Alusine Dauda Conteh (the senior teacher) explained that the school had been incredibly lucky to receive funding for the new building, along with furniture and books. With all this equipment the school has been overwhelmed with the number of children wanting to attend that their numbers have grown to over 500.

The children pay to come to school, everything from their fees to attend which equate to several hundred pounds a year, to their uniforms and exercise books not all parents can afford to send their children to school.  Conteh explained that all children wanted to come to school, to be able to get a job to support themselves and their families.

Green-Works furniture has furbish over 70 local schools with desks, storage and most importantly chairs, which has had knock on effects directly related to the children's ability to learn and their health, many talking about chairs relieving back pains after sitting on the floor. The mission over the coming year is to furnish over 1,000 local schools. 

 

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