A Response To Covid19 An Extreme Social Emergency

To date 51 new homes have been built. The common shelters are made from concealed fixed zinc aluminium sheeting, South African bureau of Standard approved treated timber and IBR roof sheeting. One of the problems the NGO has encountered is that due to Covid19 and its effect on the economy the cost of materials has gone up considerably. 25 families will benefit from Etex materials. 20 (4 already built) with the ikhayalami prototype that will get internal ETEX cladding of 6 mm board and 5 families (1 already built) will get a structure made with a timber frame, IBR roof sheeting for the roof with 12mm external cladding from Etex for the walls. The other problem is that the NGO did not factor having to build a foundation for the Etex external structure (a one course layer of bricks on top of a bed of cement mix in a trench the circumference of the shelter. This is in order to give the structure stability and protect the boards and timber from water and damp). When it came to building it the NGO realised this was a necessity. This has increased the costs of the Etex build as there is more time needed and more labour required. There is a chance that one or two of the units made with the 12mm external cladding from Etex might also get internal cladding. The project has faced a problem with some of the beneficiaries who encroached on the road reserves and were determined to sabotage the project by claiming that the plot surveys were changing their plot sizes. This created a lot of suspicion among some of the community members. However, the greater involvement of the community project committee and the city council helped to resolve these issues and averted the fears