EMBASSY NEWS
One Step Closer to a Dream Coming True
- by Kelly Daniel
Engineering Ministries, or eMI, sent seven volunteers to Brazzaville on March 21, with each team member using his or her annual leave from their jobs in the United States and Canada in order to come work in Makana II. The team surveyed the entire Makana II area, designed architectural plans for the houses, conducted water and sanitation surveys and made new friends in the village by the time they departed the Republic of the Congo on March 31.
Construction on the first of 24 new homes in Makana II can begin in May, now that the architectural, engineering and surveying plans have been completed. Five homes will be built first, with another five scheduled to begin each month until October, depending on availability of materials. Makana II currently has about 50 families.
Makana II is the site of a joint project by the Fuller Center for Housing, Embassy Brazzaville, USAID and International Partnership for Human Development (IPHD), a NGO active in Congo. The project seeks to share technical and construction skills while assisting Makana II residents to build their own new homes.
eMI team members, several of whom were visiting Africa for the first time, said they were impressed with the residents of Makana II and appreciated the warm and friendly welcome they received throughout their stay in Congo. The team included project leader Gary McPhee of Colorado Spring, Co.; architect Dirk Anderson of Jacksonville, Fla.; surveyor David Lee of Ashton, Idaho; intern and landscape design student Sam Wirth of Athens, Ga.; engineer Franky Li of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; intern and engineering graduate Connie Chan of Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and engineer John Thayer of San Diego, Calif.
Each Makana II family will build their own homes, along with volunteers and representatives from the Fuller Center, IPHD, USAID, Embassy Brazzaville and B.L. Harbert International. Each family will also make payments on their homes, paying the equivalent of $20 USD on a long-term, fixed-rate payment schedule. The money will then be used to build more homes in Makana II, allowing the entire community to be transformed. Millard and Linda Fuller, founders of the Fuller Center, implemented a similar philosophy when they founded Habitat for Humanity.
The homes will be made of baked, clay bricks, with corrugated metal roofs and include a front porch. Each home will have two bedrooms, as decided by the Makana II residents themselves. The new homes will be built on each family’s existing land, so that each family will remain living on their own property.
Makana II is bisected by the Route National No. 1 road, which is being expanded and improved. Dozens of people will lose their current homes due to the road construction, which requires a 25-meter buffer zone on both sides of the road. Thus, the village was a prime candidate for the first Fuller Center-led project in Republic of the Congo.
The eMI team also studied ways to improve water and sanitation in Makana II, which draws water from the nearby Marigout River. Three springs currently serve the population but eMI’s early results show only two actually are potable, with water that appears safe for drinking. More work will be done on how to best help the villagers with their need for reliable, safe water.
