WHY WE ARE WORKING IN UGANDA

What is the need?

In Uganda today, peaceful now after decades of terrible civil unrest, there is a pressing need for…

• low-cost, affordable housing for a rapidly growing population
• classrooms, dormitories and staff houses for a population of whom more than 50% are of school age
• water storage tanks where only 40% has access to clean water
• communities to adopt building technologies that are sustainable
• builders and masons to be trained in the use of appropriate construction techniques that preserve the environment rather than damage it

What is the problem with conventional building methods?

• the traditional form of construction uses clay bricks, fired in wood-fired kilns that consume vast quantities of wood
• these kilns are environmentally devastating, consuming 10 tonnes of firewood for the 10,000 bricks required for a small, two-roomed house, emitting 14 tonnes of C02 in the process
• that's the equivalent of 6 flights to Bangkok!
• deforestation on this scale is destroying Uganda's fragile biodiversity
• women and children are walking further and further to locate ever-scarcer sources of firewood