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Monsoon Shelter Construction Underway.

This project provides a community living in terrible conditions with the raw materials to build themselves temporary shelters.

After some final discussions to ensure that everyone was aware of and in agreement with the plans, the first load of wood was delivered to inhabitants of tent camp. Keen, hardworking and talented, the inhabitants of the camp were to build the shelters themselves, with the benefit of providing them with a sense of achievement and of ownership of the finished homes. They immediately set to work under the direction of the “boss lady”. Within hours the first row of tents were down and the sawdust was flying.

The work started on Saturday and approaching the site on Tuesday you could not help but be moved by the sight of the wooden roofs rising above the sagging tents. In just three days three rows of mouldy tents had been replaced by wooden monsoon shelters. The whole camp was transformed in to a workshop. The workers were focused, working long days, not stopping for shelter from the midday sun, keen to complete their new settlement. At least 30 men were busy sawing and nailing and the women and children bustled around carrying wood. The air was thick with sweat, sawdust, excitement and pride, feelings this group had not felt in a long while.

You could argue that even if the housing quality would not be improved by the project it was worth doing, providing this community with something to be proud of, some purpose for the days which had, over the last few months, been filled with an endless waiting for good news, for a solution to their situation.

As it is of course, the quality of the housing is being vastly improved. The sagging canvass homes, covered in spores and allowing two feet of water to collect on the ground were banished to a heap in the corner of the site. The new shelters standing tall and bright in the sun. Inside the 10ft high rooms you can feel the difference in temperature from the stifling, ariless tents. During the consultation with the camp they requested an alternative to the commonly used corrugated iron which in the sun transforms the shelters in to ovens while in the heavy rain the noise is unbearable and makes sleeping an impossibility. We decided that despite the additional cost these shelters would be capped with wood and tar paper and standing inside in the midday sun there was no doubt it had been the right decision.

It was suggested to the workers that they should put the roofs on the whole block as a priority in case the rains came but they were keen to get the sides up as this is what made the shelters look like homes, and this was clearly of utmost importance to them. With some reservation we agreed to let them do it the way they wanted. Who were we to deprive them of a sense of “home” after so long.

After a week of industrious labouring the last shelter was completed. They were delighted with the results and justifiably proud of their work.

Work is underway on the water and sanitation phase of the project and the search for permanent land continues.

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