Association La Voute Nubienne (AVN) trains villagers in Mali to build environmentally sound, healthy, houses with mud brick vaults - a valid alternative to expensive timber, sheet metal and cement.
Traditional village houses in Mali have mud and timber walls, with a roof made either of grass or a lot of timber beams supporting a mud brick flat terrace; as a result of climate change and deforestation, these houses are disappearing. And they have a limited life (wood is often eaten by termites, the grass needs regular replacement). Rural families resort to buying corrugated iron sheets and sawn timber for roof-building - an expensive, uncomfortable, fragile, and unhealthy option.
This Village Development Project, since 2009, has already trained over 50 NV masons; who have built houses, mosques, schools, a dispensary, and a community centre for 152 different clients - the majority of whom are poor village families.
Creation of a self-sustaining local market in VN housing, with a critical mass of trained NV masons / entrepreneurs earning their living through their skills.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
