Special Appeal : Room to live, room to grow
Silole’s built a better home for herself - and a better life for her family
Silole is so proud of her home, the home she built with her own hands. Yet not long ago Silole’s home brought her so many problems. As a Maasai, Silole once lived a nomadic life, but changing times forced her tribe to settle. Their homes, designed as temporary shelters, were small and cramped. Without windows, they filled with deadly smoke whenever a meal was cooked; and every time the rains came, the mud walls just crumbled away.
Now, with advice from ITDGPractical Action, Silole has built herself a safe home, in which to look after her family and tend her animals. Most importantly, she can start to find ways to keep poverty at bay.
Silole’s new home means the start of a new life, for her and her family. But many thousands of people are still living in places that offer none of the protection we all need and deserve as human beings - if, that is, they have somewhere to call home at all.
ITDGPractical Action is working to help communities facing terrible danger in Peru, where earthquakes are common and can wipe out a whole village at a stroke. We’ve helped local people develop cheap, safe houses that can withstand severe tremors and keep families safe. But we need help, urgently, to build more.
With your gift you won’t just be helping someone put a roof over their head. You’ll be giving them a starting point from which to improve their health, make their lives more secure - to fight poverty and lay the foundations of a new, better life for the future.
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| How your money can help ... |
Standing strong against disaster
When a severe earthquake hit the Peruvian district of San Francisco de Moquegua in June 2001, ITDGPractical Action knew how to help. In Alto Mayo, another disaster-prone part of the country, ITDGPractical Action had already helped people adapt their homes to withstand earthquakes, through simple adaptations to traditional building techniques. These improved homes passed the ultimate test when a tremor left them almost untouched.
But thousands of families in Peru are still vulnerable, living in homes that simply can’t protect them. That’s why ITDGPractical Action is working urgently to share their skills with over 1,000 local people, to help them build new, safe homes to protect themselves from disaster.
£24 could help a local ITDGPractical Action adviser in San Francisco, Peru, teach three people new building skills to protect them from disaster.
As the land around Shambob village, Sudan, was worn down by drought and desertification, many people started working for local brick companies for a pittance. They had no other choice. But with ITDGPractical Action’s help, some villagers decided to set up community co-operatives, making bricks to sell, to enable them to feed, clothe and educate their children.
Today ITDGPractical Action wants to help these local brick co-operatives do even more, with improved brick-making techniques, better kilns, and replacing firewood with sugar-cane waste and cow dung by-products.
£45 is enough to train one person in environmentally-sensitive brick-making, so that they can provide themselves with better homes and better work.
The Maasai people of southern Kenya used to be nomads, and built homes to suit their needs: small, and quickly made using the simplest technologies. When changing times forced many Maasai to settle, their houses had to change - so ITDGPractical Action helped them plan and build new types of homes.
Windows brought in light and let out smoke, a curved roof could be used to collect rainwater, and wire mesh added to the walls gave strength and durability. Now ITDGPractical Action wants to reach more Maasai communities urgently, to help them make their houses safer and stronger.
£200 could pay for a "ferro-cement" wire mesh roof, strong enough to last for years.
Will you help people get the homes they need?
ITDGPractical Action is already helping hundreds of people build strong housing, and make their own homes fit to live in. But so many more people need help - your help. Make a gift to ITDGPractical Action today and you’ll support people as they build better futures, wherever the need is greatest.
Having secure housing is not just a basic human need: it is everyone’s right. You can do so much to help. Thank you.
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Or click for more information on how your support can help ITDGPractical Action help other communities around the world.
Read more about ITDGPractical Action's shelter work.
