nhangau HousinG Pilot Project
What is a house? Sure, it has four walls and a roof At its most basic, it is a dwelling consisting of walls, a floor, and a roof. But it is so much more. It’s a place we can call home, where we can feel safe and be ourselves. It is where we live with our families and gather with our closest friends. A home protects us from the weather and crime.
Sadly, having a home is out of reach for many Mozambicans.
Many rural Mozambicans build their homes with whatever materials are locally available without knowledge of modern construction methods. Every year between January and March, the monsoon season comes and damages many of these houses, which lack proper waterproofing and suffer from incorrectly set foundations. Project Vita knew there had to be a better way.
Safe doesn’t have to mean expensive.
In 2015, Project Vita launched a pilot project in the village of Nhangau, near Beira. The goal was to find affordable ways to improve building methods without using expensive or imported materials. Volunteers from Sweden and Mozambique worked together and came up with an ingenious solution: build a foundation of used tires, crushed glass, and woven nylon bags — all inexpensive and readily available. With proper thatching techniques, we could weave dried leaves to make them waterproof.
The real test came with the monsoon season — and our test house passed with flying colors! Once we knew our plans worked, we drew up blueprints detailing costs and construction methods, and then distributed them to villages across the region. By combining traditional methods with modern techniques, Project Vita was able to build sustainable housing without resorting to plans that would make them cost-prohibitive to build. It remains our goal to boost scalability by providing easy-to-follow instructions to those wanting to improve existing homes or build new ones in Mozambique's rural areas, where development projects are often not prioritized.
Want to get involved?
Project Vita is always looking for volunteers! Experience in construction or engineering is always a plus, but the main thing we need is a good work ethic and a desire to help others. If that sounds like you, visit our volunteering page and see if you think you could be the right fit!
If you can’t commit to travel right now (thanks, COVID), consider a financial donation instead. Our staff is all volunteer, but we do have fixed costs, and every contribution helps! All donations are tax-deductable and 100% of the money we receive goes to our work in Mozambique.