Search results for - ‘poverty’

Project Description The project seeks to reduce the incidence of malaria by implementing home improvements that reduce the number of mosquitos entering people’s homes. The project is based in Minkoameyos, one of the poorest informal settlements in Cameroon’s capital city Yaoundé where 80% of children were found to have the disease. There have been significant […]

The Centro Experimental de la Vivienda Económica (CEVE), member of Asociacion de la Vivienda Económica (AVE), specialises in research, technological development, transfer and training in low-cost housing. It works to promote social inclusion, access to housing for low-income groups and alternative ways of tackling a range of housing-related issues. Key features of CEVE’s work include the development of integral building systems and sustainable building components and to date 4,200 homes have been built using the technologies, management and financial systems developed. Its participatory approach and training processes help develop confidence, cooperation and skills among community residents. NGOs and governments throughout Latin America and beyond have benefited from CEVE’s work.   

This incremental housing programme, developed by the community-based organisation UCISV-VER, combines resources from participating families with traditional joint savings schemes and micro-credit to help families who have no access to formal credit build new homes or improve their existing accommodation. The construction process is phased to avoid families becoming financially overstretched. Families are involved in the design process of their homes and training is provided in self-help construction methods. The consolidation of community organisation and solidarity, the empowerment of women and development of savings capacity are important elements of this well-established programme that has to date funded the construction and/or improvement of 684 homes in the state of Veracruz.   

This nationwide housing programme arose out of the 1996 Peace Accords established in Guatemala at the end of a long civil war. As well as providing decent homes for 18,000 people to date, the project also works to restore the communities that have been damaged by the hostilities of the civil war. Local people are involved at all stages of the project, including the construction of the dwellings.