The plan
Kwasa Kwasa is a social-profit organization that dedicates itself to the development of the nearly unknown African country of Malawi. They focus especially on rural areas. By means of microfinance, they try to help the local population to work out their own initiatives, and they give financial aid at the start of every project. In the spring of 2008, ten enthusiastic women from the village of Chickhano convinced Kwasa Kwasa to build a poultry house.
Domus Mundi’s part
Domus Mundi donated the money needed for the construction of the poultry house, the materials (including a small fridge with a solar panel), a starter pack of chicken feed and a two-day training given by a veterinary surgeon. The first step in this project was the construction of the poultry house. Reliable, hard-wearing materials were needed, and a design that bore in mind chicken breeding requirements, local habits and the ecological balance. That was right up the alley of Domus Mundi. With the help of a local team of hard-working villagers, a professional bricklayer and joiner, in only three weeks a complete building was set up.
Materials and techniques
The choice of the materials depended in each case on different aspects: tradition, durability, ecology and impact on nature and the environment:
- Base materials for the run: adobe, unbaked bricks made of loam tamped down in a mould, produced on the spot by the villagers.
- Protection from rainfall: a large overhang combined with a coat of cement on the outside.
- On the inside: a regular coat of loam
- Material for the truss and cabinetwork (door and window frame): locally cultivated wood (in Mzuzu, the capital of Malawi’s Northern Region)
- Roof covering: sheets of corrugated iron, because they last much longer than the traditionally used reed that has to be replaced yearly.
