Building Healthy Communities
Budget: $250 – $750 CAD
My name is Kevin Jones, a retired photographer from Liverpool, England, who has spent the last 14 years in Christian mission & humanitarian work focused on Malawi, Africa. The experiences of the past decade have shown that good intentions are not enough and that a more holistic, architectural approach would better serve the ultra poor communities we seek to help. By design we bring together communities and resources that consolidate the elements around and provide basic utilities. A compact earth (or rammed earth) community centre, with solar power, water management, including a borehole and water collection are complimented by a permaculture methodology. To the untrained eye this does not hit at the heart strings but in fact provides the most affective longterm impact for generations. The compact earth building means medical clinics can visit, after school programs can run, solar panels allow for adult education in the evening and other social gathering like church can take place. The water management and permaculture elements improve health and hygiene enormously while the inclusion of a toilet block that can multifunction to provide compost and / or methane to cook with has great added value. None of this has any life if it was not for the pre and post project training that gives each community ownership, allowing Compact to gradually remove itself.
Compact is registered in Canada and Malawi with two separate boards. The Canadian board has the responsibility of sharing its vision and raising the funds while the local board have the responsibility of implementing the ideas in the best possible way with their local knowledge. As we come to the completion of our first project at a cost of $150,000 USD our vision is to build 2-3 per year in the next 5 years and grow the organization from there. All board members are volunteers and we currently manage with two part time staff, legal and accountancy fees which allows us to keep our costs to about 20%. To grow we need to develop our exposure to the public, find benefactors and seek out relevant grants relative to our cause.
Compact is registered in Canada and Malawi with two separate boards. The Canadian board has the responsibility of sharing its vision and raising the funds while the local board have the responsibility of implementing the ideas in the best possible way with their local knowledge. As we come to the completion of our first project at a cost of $150,000 USD our vision is to build 2-3 per year in the next 5 years and grow the organization from there. All board members are volunteers and we currently manage with two part time staff, legal and accountancy fees which allows us to keep our costs to about 20%. To grow we need to develop our exposure to the public, find benefactors and seek out relevant grants relative to our cause.