Burundi: New homes, new life

By forming groups of ten families to build new homes together, the vulnerable are helped by the those who are more fit and able. The groups make mud bricks, while Cord supply the roofing, two doors and four windows - as well as a latrine per family.

Each household has a stable for the animals, who traditionally have shared the house. This initial project will see 3,300 people with a new roof over their head, with much improved sanitation and hygiene, and the beginnings of a small holding. Simple hygiene training can do a great deal to to make the Burundians less vulnerable to infection and disease.

For those who returned home after more than a decade in exile to find their homes destroyed, occupied or in chronic dilapidation, this is a real transformation.