Author: Sabreehna S. Essien, MPH

A Native to the Pacific Northwest, Sabreehna is American with Kenyan descent. Sabreehna holds a Master of Public Health and is a small business owner. She currently studies Marriage Family Therapy at Northcentral University and graduates in 2024. Sabreehna is a wife and mother of two boys. Sabreehna enjoys a good book, travel, fashion, nature hikes, and time with her husband and children. Sabreehna dreams of building schools, health clinics, community centers, and affordable housing in rural parts of Africa.

Mwangaza Affordable Housing Development Project

Sabreehna S. Essien, MPH

Abstract

Taita Taveta County has 250,000 plus population.  It is 150 km Northeast of Mombasa and 300 km southeast of Nairobi with the capital being Mwatate. Mwatate is the fourth largest city in the county with a total population of 56,365 and 3,386 in urban areas. The county is 17,083 km with 11,000 km making up Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks. The terrain is flat, hot climate, and has a main highway trucking route from Tanzania to the central city of Voi.

Project Objectives

ND Art Studios main goal is:

 Provide affordable housing to families living in the Taita Taveta District. Thus, providing a viable solution to families in crisis facing homelessness or lacking adequate living facilities.

ND Art Studios objectives are listed below:

  1. Build One and Two-Bedroom Flats.

            Our team will lead out in the construction of the housing development, managing and leasing of the homes. Our Regional Coordinator will facilitate and monitor our management team (Property Manager and Leasing Agents) and report to the Executive Board.

  • Provide Employment

            Our construction team will hire locally. The job opportunities are laborers, landscapers, and leasing agents. Once the homes are built and families moved in, our management team will provide financial advice, work-shops for new home owners, manage the property and the maintenance crew will aid throughout the housing development.

  • Build Green Facilities

We will contract a Solar Power company to build solar grids for each home, build water tank towers for each home, and create a recycling program for the housing development.

Detailed Project Description

Mwatate, capital city of Taita Taveta District, is the area our team will build 100 homes to start, 50 one bedrooms and 50 two-bedroom flats. Each home will be built on a ½ acre plot, have solar paneling installed, large water tank, paved patio, paved parking. The one-bedroom homes 300×12 square feet or 334.5 square meters. The two-bedroom homes 600×24 square feet or 1,337.8 square meters.

Item 1A: Map of Taita Taveta District and Mwatate location for housing development

Click on the link below to purchase custom designed shirts and hoodies which I personally designed. A percentage of the proceeds will go toward the Mwangaza Affordable Housing Project. Thanks for supporting this vision and sharing with your network.

https://www.bonfire.com/mwangaza-housing-development-project/

ND Art Studios Presents :Introspection Online Exhibit

Sabreehna S. Essien, MPH

Introspection will be showing live July 14th, 2020 @ 10am via ND Art Studios Facebook page. The online Gallery is a body of new work birthed out of the Covid-19 lock-down and the Black Lives Matters movement sweeping across the world.

It is a live event so you don’t want to miss it!!!

I will be going live from my studio, sharing my journey through visual art and spoken word, there will be open mic, and special guest TBA.

Art Flow,

Sabreehna S. Essien

Black Love

Sabreehna S. Essien, MPH

Say my name…blacker than night

My eyes like stars hold constellations

My smile like the sun brings healing to all those that gaze

My curves smooth like the Sahara

Loving you wash over me like waves

Thirsty my love drinks deeply from my lips

His hands healing me gentle

My fingertips curl

Twist

Acknowledge My Humanity

Sabreehna S. Essien, MPH

Racism is witchcraft. It seeks to oppress by any means necessary. It screams with fury for all those who refuse the box created to enslave you, bury you, six feet under fields of my ancestors blood crying from the earth….this skin…my skin…my black skin is never cursed. Black gold…when I meet my maker his reflection will shine in me.

Racism is witchcraft. It seeks to eliminate its own Muse. Modern day lynching of strange fruit lying in the streets, bed sheets, passenger side, standing unarmed in homes…yet this toxic spell never meant for you, me, we to ever own anything. Corpses are left hanging in the balance while autopsy reports confirm what we already know to be true….organs removed for modern day pagan rituals. 1,000 of our kind missing, wishing upon a star, black night turn into dawn….scatter the black clouds of white supremacy and let righteousness reign…rain down justice. Clear the sky, my eyes, our minds.

-Sabreehna- 25 June 2020

Broken Fragments

Sabreehna S. Essien, MPH

In June, I attended a two-day Public Art: Public Action training session. We heard from city officials, Transportation Department, Pierce Transit, and Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department representatives on their plans for the Subarea of Tacoma Mall. It is great to know our city is seeking to make improvement to beautify our community while partnering with local organizations, businesses, and Artist to do so.
I am apart of a 12-person cohort, chosen by City of Tacoma to explore the community, design a temporary public art project, and implement a plan to engage the surrounding Tacoma Mall area community. After doing research within the community, I decided to address the issue of Mental Health.

The title of my project is Broken Fragments and the theme is self-love. I am a big fan of Art Therapy which is a means to destress and relax the mind while being creative and producing art that makes one smile. I taught a one-day work shop at Marlene’s Market and Deli. The participants were given materials to decorate a heart shaped piece of wood with positives words of affirmation. The art work produced will be apart of the overall piece displayed at Caribbean Grocery on 54th

Broken Fragments is a mixed media piece which seeks to provide a positive affirmation with words. Mental health is essential to daily living. Art Therapy is a great way to encourage self-healing and through visual arts or hands on art projects promote positive messages into the community and atmosphere. Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has found Tacoma Mall area to have high percentage of individuals affected by Depression and Mental Illness. Broken Fragments encourages self-care while promoting positive self-talk and behavioral change with Art Therapy. It is my hope that the Broken Fragments will heal and inspire the community.

Wings of Eagles

Sabreehna S. Essien, MPH

Soul cries as I soar. Once one has stepped out of the comfort zone, box, square, peg, whatever….it is like stepping off a drop off. Its scary when one is entering unchartered territory in the movement of living ones dreams. Dream in the sense of actual goals for which effort, heart, passion, and sweat and tears have been invested. During the time I was attending the Evergreen State College Tacoma campus the symbol that was in my school folder was a black and white news paper clipping of a Bald Eagle. The cry is no longer fear, sorrow, or uncertainty. This cry is victory cry.

Where Is He

Sabreehna S. Essien, MPH

Where is that one…Yes that one who will come. He will come and respectfully introduce himself, polite, elegant, classy, well kept, educated, and kind. Where is he. I ask not out of desperation…no…never that. I ask because one to many counterfeits have sought his royal position. Where is he. If a woman is the rib…where is the body…the souls match. Where is he. This is not a question that is why there is not need for question marks. It is a declaration to the atmosphere. He exist so where is he. I know in time all will come together. Time right now moves slow like the first trip to the moon. Let my voice ripple throughout the universe where is the lover to match my love so we can reproduce ourselves into beautiful offspring. Where Is He. My heart seeks the validation of your existence outside of my internal thoughts. Show yourself. I have become impatient after all these years. All good things take time to ripen so when love is ripe it will manifest. Until such time my heart will declare to the atmosphere Where Is He.