RIVIERA PROGRESS
Capstone Project
Kolwezi is the capital of the province of Lualaba in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo, it’s an important mining center for copper, cobalt, uranium, and radium. The population is around 573,000, and the majority live on less than $1.90 a day and cannot afford a decent home.
We are a group of young people, natives of Kolwezi city. We share the same passion for interlocking bricks and the same desire to contribute to the development of our society by providing affordable houses. Read more about us.
We manufacture, an ecofriendly, economical and easy to use product best for an affordable house construction. With ours bricks we would like to increase access to affordable and adequate quality houses to low-class families.
Our desire is to increase access to decent and affordable housing with improved sanitation and safe water. A safe and secure place that they can call home.
Kolwezi
Kolwezi is the capital of the province of Lualaba in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kolwezi is an important mining center for copper, cobalt, uranium, and radium. The city is also a banking and artisanal mining center. But its population remains poor because of the mismanagement of its resources by politicians and the corruption which is a common practice in the country. The population is around 573,000, but the majority live on less than $1.90 a day and cannot afford a decent home.
The Project
In DRC, the vast majority of citizens cannot afford to purchase a home. To provide accessible and affordable housing, especially to low-class people living in Kolwezi, we designed the Capstone Project, which is a housing project, to build affordable houses by using cheap and eco-friendly construction materials, to make it happen we need to hit $200K. The project will be divided into 3 phases. The Hardware store, the production of interlocking brick, and the construction of houses.
Hardware Store
In order to keep the construction cost as low as possible, the first phase of the project will be the opening of a hardware store. Because most of the building materials in the country are imported, which makes them two or three times more expensive. So to reduce this cost a hardware store will be essential as well as to auto-finance the project with the profit.
Interlocking Brick production process
Interlocking Stabilized Soil Blocks (ISSB) technology addresses both environmental and economic challenges of traditional burned/fired bricks for building houses. ISSB has proven to drastically reduce the cost of building by min 50% as well as time-saving.
1) Take soil/sand/clay and mix it with the cement. The rule of thumb is a ratio of 1(cement)/6(soil). The exact ratio depends on the soil.
2) Mix properly/continuously as we keep on adding water until it is mixed.
3) Take a mixture and put it into the mold box (of the machine/handmade mold) and we compress it to produce an interlocking block.
4) We Remove and put the block in the shade or cover it with grass to avoid direct sunlight exposure.
5) Leave it to dry for at least 7 days as we water it for a maximum of 1 week.
6) When they are dry and firm, after at least 2 weeks, they are ready for building.
For this project, a team of 4 brick makers will be needed, to load, stack and store the bricks and also so that the goal of 1200 bricks per day will be reach.
Houses construction
Construction is key to the development of the basic community and the nation as a whole. In pursuit of affordable building materials. That is why we choose, Interlocking Soil Stabilized Blocks (ISSBs) as an alternative to Concrete hollow Blocks and wood-fired bricks.
ISS blocks are environmentally friendly because the blocks are produced under high machine compression of soil without the use of wood used to burn blocks.
The interlocking blocks use soil, which is an excellent insulation material, buildings that are constructed using the interlocking blocks keep cool in the warm months and warm in the cooler months.
This type of construction also promotes the employment of no skilled labor giving them something to provide for their families. This project will employ a team of 9 people, 3 professional mason and 6 mason helper.
Support Us
Capstone Project aims to provide affordable and adequate quality houses to low-class families so they can access new homes with improved sanitation and safe water.
This year, we will provide 20 houses, to help 20 vulnerable families living in Kolwezi.
Why do we have to hit $200K and what we will do with your contribution
to start the project, we need to scale up our business in the following ways
-
Opening a Hardware store to supply construction with construction materials.
-
Purchase of an additional automatic and manual interlocking brick machine, (in case of power cut which happen frequently in the city, the brick production won’t stop)
-
The acquisition of land, which will be the brick production site, in a rural area.
-
Purchase land in an urban area for the construction of the first houses.
The Capstone Project
Every donation can make the difference
By clicking on Support Button, You will make a contribution of 320 bricks to the Capstone Project, equivalent to $112. Which will not be deliver to your place but will be a contribution to the project.
Please support us, your contribution will change people's life.