Of the world's 6 billion people, 1.2 billion - 1 person in five - live on less than $1 a day. Between 750 million and one billion of these absolute poor live in slums. 300 million of these live in the slums of Africa. Without adequate housing, social stability and a sense of security, any hope of community mobilization or poverty eradication is compromised.
There are many advantages to building with local earthen materials. Earth blocks are one of the most environmentally friendly building materials available. By comparison, cement is the most commonly used building material, yet at great expense to the environment. Cement requires tremendous energy resources to produce and often those resources create significant levels of pollution. Earth blocks also require less skilled labor for construction and their production consumes the least amount of energy.
Works of Wonder International seeks to increase access to adequate housing by raising awareness of low-cost building methods, and by helping local builders acquire the necessary technologies and skills.
KickStart (formerly known as ApproTec) develops and markets new technologies in Africa. These low-cost technologies are purchased by W.O.W. and then made available to local entrepreneurs in exchange for community service.
KickStart has developed a high-pressure stablized soil block press, which makes strong building blocks from soil and cement. Four workers using this heavy duty manual press can produce 500 rock hard building blocks a day, compacting a soil/cement mixture under high mechanical pressure. The press is adjustable for use with almost any soil type and just 1 bag of cement makes over 100 bricks.
Blocks can be sold profitably to build walls at half the cost of the concrete block or stone walls.
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