In last year’s vision sharing event, we mentioned an existing building suitable for our future development. With active fundraising and your generous, enthusiastic, and substantial support, we received a total donation of $250,000.
Therefore, we started to actively contact the building owner.In the middle of February this year, Brother Michael Yu, the chairman of the campus project plan, and I personally went to Togo and hired a local professional architect for a further site survey.
We found that, in addition to the $350,000 building purchasing price, if we wanted to convert it into a school, we would need to add a substantial amount of money to enhance the fire escape routes and the load-bearing capacity of the floors. Not only could we not use it immediately, but it would also take a considerable amount of time to renovate. Furthermore, the land itself is only 450 square meters, it would limit our future development.
During this trip, we also looked at several different sites and Praise the Lord we found a very ideal piece of land. This land is just one street away from the main boulevard and has excellent visibility. And the lot is 2,400 square meters, which is 5.4 times larger than the building lot. This meets what we require for the school’s short-term, medium-term, and long-term plans.
The cost of this land is about $198,000, and after construction, the price will be about the same as buying and renovating the previous building. If we can own this lot, we would have a brand new, a larger school building, and also a site that allows for future expansion.
So we immediately sought a local lawyer to verify the land ownership status and got in touch with the landlord. The landlord, a retired Togolese dentist, greatly appreciated our mission when she heard that we aim to use it for education, healthcare, and future nursing teaching. Our teams in both the United States and Togo also think this is a more ideal project plan. Meanwhile, we are making rapid progress with the purchase of the land with the help of our Togolese lawyer and architect.
Thank you for your donations, prayers, and support. Please continue to keep our team in your prayers. We believe God is leading us step by step into the beautiful and promised land He has prepared for us! We will continue to update you on our progress.