Building cost effective eco-houses for the homeless

Uganda has the world's youngest population with over 78 percent of its population below the age of 30. With just under eight million youth aged 15-30, the country also has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. Uganda has an 80% unemployment rate amongst the youth and according to projections, this number is estimated to grow by 2030. This is majorly because scores of students who graduate in different courses from the numerous universities across the country are ill equipped with actual work environment skills and ethics. Students are focused on passing the standardized tests rather than the relation and application of the learned concepts to real life while employment agencies on the other hand seek persons that have competences and experiences in the day to day management of the aspects of such agencies.  In light of this, the majority of the youths have low capacities to attain employment and are as well do not have the necessary skill set to create their own employments.

In addition World-wide over 500 billion tons of plastic bottles are produced every year, and  according to Ugandan National environment management authority 600 tons of plastic waste are poorly disposed of in Kampala every day, 51% of this plastic remained uncollected, the major beverage companies in Uganda have decided to maximize their profits instead of protecting the environment through phasing out recyclable glass bottles and replace them with plastic bottles, without a waste disposal system in place the plastic waste ends up in water ways, clogs pipes, floods the city centres and affect aquatic life. In Addition, Uganda's population is the fastest growing in the entire world within the next 20 years the population is expected to double and this put massive pressure on the housing sector. The convention construction is still much reliant on ordinary build materials, majorly burnt bricks, the process of burning this bricks consumes a lot of wood that accelerate the existing challenges of deforestation.

The annual need for new housing for the entire country is estimated at 200,000 housing units of which 135,000 are in rural areas and 65,000 in urban areas resulting from the population growth of 3.2 percent and an urbanization rate of 5.1 percent. With an average income of $65 a month it is not surprising that over two-third of Ugandans live in substandard housing. The lack of quality housing compromises people’s health and development opportunities.

We are looking for the way of using the already existing challenge to act as answer to another challenge, the plastic waste accumulation problem is transformed to make different affordable houses to low-income earners while employing disadvantaged groups of people. 

Pendeza Shelters is a social enterprise which focuses on environmental restoration, protection and improvement in the lives of marginalized groups of people. We are doing waste education, collection plans and plastic zero waste campaigns in communities in order to change people's mind-set on the way they think and dispose of plastic waste. On the other side we also connect recycling companies to waste collectors hence improving on their employability. With our team we train communities on the way they can turn plastic waste into products of inherent value. We also construct homes out of plastic waste and support environmentally friendly start-ups.

We transforming the waste crisis in Africa into employment opportunities for marginalized groups of people through creative skills training. Pendeza Shelters protect the environment and promote innovative mind-set while empowering youth. Through up-cycling plastic bottles we train our local communities especially the disadvantaged youth to protect the environment. Bottles replaces environmentally unfriendly bricks, which are burnt for days promoting deforestation. Bottles are collected from communities and compacted with soil by community members, making the houses very cost effective and affordable since the materials and labour is accessed within the same environment. Furthermore, the buildings are strong, buffer heat and are earthquake resistant.

We developed a home based plastic bin system where households deposit plastic waste. The households are taught to make these plastic bins and retain them as their collection bins. The house bins are three feet diameter by four feet height. We collect the waste weekly from the household to our centre for production.

Pendeza Shelters is well known for making of eco-bricks for construction. Our Company in collaboration with community members is able to make 20,000 eco-bricks in a period of one month (30days). Additionally, the company renders services in terms of construction. We construct one structure (medium size) in the period of 3 months and hand it over to the client.

Pendeza shelters is supporting marginalized groups of people while empowering them financially to support their families and change the mind-set that most of them have towards plastic waste for example we have provided direct jobs to over 230 women and youths in different communities who participate in different plastic handcraft and others serve on contract as waste pickers, sorters, compactors and builders. In addition, we construct affordable houses that are environmentally friendly by replacing burnt bricks with plastic bottles which saves the environment and combat plastic waste accumulations. We empower youth with construction and upcycling skills to be able to turn the locally available materials into valuable products that are vital and productive. Pendeza shelters turn what other people see as a challenge or as problem into solution to another problem for example we solve the problem of plastic waste accumulation, deforestation, unemployment, housing problem and indeed that what sets apart from other upcycling and construction companies.

We mainly operate with vulnerable communities especially women and youth from refugee camps and flood affected communities. We are working with Nakivale, Bidibidi and Kyaka ii refugee camps. And saying good bye to poverty amongst fellow youths and women in Uganda, we have been able to raise awareness and have managed to change people’s mindset about how they see and dispose of plastic, we have constructed over 40 plastic bottle houses in different parts of Uganda and Africa at large. Through our sensitization programs in communities, schools and institutions we empower people so that they change their behavior on the way they dispose of and talk about waste. We are looking forward to creating a garbage collection system in Uganda whereby people will change their behavior on the way they dispose of plastic waste while inspiring other to start small and grow big through upcycling initiatives.

Pendeza shelters reach the market by grass roots penetration. We target marginalized youths and women, NGO’s, Eco-tourism businesses, beaches and the community at large with the aim of training youths and women on making goods of inherent values from plastic bottles including bags, earrings, pen holders, plastic bins, constructing upcycled plastic bottle houses and selling plastic bottles to recycling companies for example Coca Cola,  Kampala Capital City Authority waste plant-Kitezi, Asante Waste Management, Aquila recycling plant, Mukwano house of plastics among others.

Distribution is done directed through known community contacts. Pendeza shelters work with these contacts to promote the products and services in the community. In this way, knowledge of upcycling and recycling is spread from peer to peer and beneficiaries also start their own startup businesses. Pendeza shelters trains local masons in correct construction of upcycled houses. These masons serve as local contacts and trouble shooters, should any problems arise during construction of houses.  As each community reaches sustainable acceptance, Pendeza shelters reach out to other communities for monitoring and evaluation.

Pendeza shelters team is most blessed with effective communication, diverse skills and expertise, strong leadership, collaboration, flexibility, attention to details, and positive attitude. The team is composed of world-class researcher, engineer, community developer, social worker, innovator and other professional who are experts in their respective fields. We work together to advance the field of artificial intelligence and develop cutting-edge technologies that have the potential to transform communities and improve people’s lives.

Pendeza shelters team values transparency, collaboration, and intellectual curiosity which are crucial for fostering a culture of innovation and continuous learning. We also have a track record of achieving significant breakthroughs such changing people’s mindset on the value the plastic waste has. Our team possesses the necessary skills, expertise, and mindset to tackle complex challenges and drive innovation in the field of waste management Africa wide.

We conduct community consultation engaging them through consultation and surveys providing valuable insights into their needs, preferences and priorities. This has created a base for the pendeza team to address the community concerns. We collaborate with community organizations to establish dialogue and ensuring their voices are heard. We value co-creation, transparency and accountability encouraging working together to develop the solution from outset or allowing for ongoing feedback and adjustments for involvement in decision making and solution fit to community challenges.

As Pendeza shelters we involve the community in the design and implementation of solution to build trust, increase its relevance and effectiveness, and ensure that it reflects the needs and priorities of all members in the community.

We currently serve over 230 people in different communities being involved in different activities. Through our plastic waste handcraft system of producing products of inherent valves from plastic waste and rubber, we have 50 women in bag production, 44 people in dustbin making, 40 people in Plastic block making and 96 people participate in echo house construction where they work in collection of bottles and polythene bags, they do sorting, compaction and building.

We are applying to increase and improve our production process. We have designed more products like plastic blocks, plastic paves, water proof shopping bags, Roofing plastic tiles and plastic dust bins that need machinery for quality and quantity. Currently pendeza shelters need the shredding machine that crush plastic and polythene bags where the material crushed will be used in the production of plastic blocks. We need a connection machine that will join all weaved polythene to make waster proof plastic bags. Our main target is to recycle over 100000 plastic bottles in making plastic dustbins by students in secondary school. This is a program designed to skill and create awareness of poor plastic disposal.

Most of the communities in Uganda are not aware of the dangers related to poor disposal of plastic waste in the environment. We are applying to champion the awareness campaigns in the communities about the dangers of plastic waste and rubbers and their effects. We want to create more employment opportunities for the youth and women in different communities in Uganda since we have over 81% of unemployment rate.

We love to spread the technology of constructing plastic bottle houses in marginalized communities especially in refugee settlements. This is to support the people learn the skills of building their own houses and creating employment opportunities for them as waste pickers, sorters, compactors (turning plastic bottles into eco bricks) and laying bottles to build a house. We are applying to be the leading social project championing plastic handcraft producing many products from plastic waste and rubber through creativity.  

Our innovation compared to other is that we construct eco-houses from plastic bottles, rubber, egg shells and polythene bags. Each building material goes through a process to be used for construction. The following are processes that each building material goes through during manufacturing:

Eco bricks- We collect bottles from the environment, sort them according to size and type finally we compact them with soil. We compact using sticks to make sure that the bottle is hard to press and has no space in it.

Rubber- We mainly use poorly disposed of car tyres, We collect them from the environment and cut into pieces turning them into roofing tiles. The rubber pieces are laid and interconnected to make a water proof roof which last approximately 500 years.

Egg shells and polythene bags. We mix polythene bags and egg shells to make tiles and terrazzo which are caste to make our floor.

Our innovation uses labour based approach in providing employment to community members, where we work with human more than machinery. We employ between 80-120 people on each house purposely to improve their livelihood. These people work in eco brick making, roof material making, and floor material making. Furthermore we construct affordable houses that are environmentally friendly by replacing burnt bricks with plastic bottles which saves the environment and combat plastic waste accumulations. We empower youth with construction and upcycling skills to be able to turn the locally available materials into something that can be vital and productive. Finally Pendeza shelters turn what other people see as a challenge or as problem into solution to another opportunity for example we solve the problem of plastic waste accumulation, deforestation, unemployment, housing problem and indeed that what sets apart from other upcycling and construction companies.

By December 2028 we shall have trained over 1000 marginalized youth as waste collectors, sorters compactors and constructors and we shall be able to provide employment for 230 of them due to a high demand of our services. We will have built social businesses standing for environmental and social impact, whereby our work contribute to a mindset shift in regards to waste and inclusion. We hope to increase our team to more people in different districts and also trained as ambassadors. Additionally we shall have developed an application that connect the waste pickers to recycling companies. The application is purposely to locate the community waste pickers directly to recycling companies connecting the pickers to direct market. The application is to locate pendeza staff to homes with plastic waste for easy connection and accessibility.

With the strategies we have laid, we plan to build shiftable home from plastic boards. We plan to transform the plastic waste into construction boards. The houses will be mainly for the communities that are affected with floods. Our way ford is to buy the machines that converts plastics especially bottles and polythene bags into plastic boards.

Our dream is to have more than 8 different creative products from plastic waste and rubber to increase on the employability of the youth and women in rural communities. In order to practice a circular economy we hope to connect with different recycling companies hence strengthening our waste recycling program.

Formally established in December 2021, the organisation has 4 key processes which act as the foundation for the organisation's work. One primary aspect is sensitizing of local communities on dangers of plastic waste and practical solutions. Since foundation, we have educated an estimated 8,800 people in different districts and employed over 230 people as waste collectors, sorters, compactors and builders on contractual basis and others in plastic handcraft system. Spiritually, through our education program, we have incorporated transparency, honesty and trustworthiness among the team members and clients. The members have built the spirit of togetherness.  We work with different groups of people where 100+ women, school dropouts and the youth have been employed as waste collectors, sorters, compactors and builders who are paid to improve their livelihood. Through our sensitization programme which recovers plastic waste to ensure a safe and clean environment. The team has recovered over 1,000,000 plastic bottles. Over 100 tons of plastic have been sustainably repurposed in making products of inherent values through our (plastic handcraft) . And constructed 40 houses in different parts of Africa especially Uganda.

Through our skills development, we have reached different countries to transfer our skills of plastic bottles construction. We have trained youth in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and currently we are moving to Tanzania. Different communities believe in our concepts, skills development, and ideas with its impact to community members.

In total, over 1 million people have been sensitized around Africa's on waste management and environmental conservation. Slogan "waste is gold".

PROBLEM

Most of the youths in rural areas are denied access to employment and those who get chance to be employed still earn very low wedge.

They also have ideas but lack facilities to implement them all this leads to low living conditions.

There is high accumulation of plastic waste in the environment without proper waste disposal system.

INPUT          

• Construction of project incubation center.
• Online, local and external mentors to support the growth of projects.
• Funds to sustain the projects and facilitators in conducting trainings.
• Purchasing skills development machines to enable the youth and women implement their ideas and increase the production of products for sale.

OUTPUT

• Recruiting and training 90 youths every year through assortment of 30 youth those who would have showed interest every after 4 months.
• 30 youths trained to support other youth and women in eco house construction. Training them the plastic waste collection, sorting, compaction and construction.
• 80 youth have mastered the process of making an eco-brick and are able to construct an eco-house.
• 2 million plastic bottles are collected from the environment and turning into valuable products
• 16 start-ups developed, incubated and  mentored every year

                OUTCOME

• 8 Enterprises developed in the innovation hub per year and each enterprise creating at least 3 employing rural youths every year.
• 24 youth creating their own jobs every year and becoming self-sustainable and are able to employ over 3 each year.

               IMPACTS

• 360 jobs created for youths in rural areas of Uganda and starting with kasese district by 2028.
• 800,000 people positively impacted from the created jobs 2028.
• 2 million bottles collected and recycled into products.

EVALUATION

Women and youth are able to construct an eco-house on their own without much supervision,

500 tons of plastic bottles collected and 20 houses constructed. 

 Labour based approach knowledge implemented

The Collection of plastic waste, from beaches, streets, land fields, bus stations among others through plastic waste monetization system is expensive locating the collection centers. Waste Collection, through community based waste management, segregation of plastic waste is done at the household level, and there is direct community member engagement and accountability which is expensive since we move from household to another collecting where some homes don’t have hence spending much on fuel and energies. Therefore we hope to create a mobile app that will schedule pickups of plastic waste by Upcyclers (Pendeza Shelters Waste pickers’ team) from households by pressing of a button. The household waste owner will be position to save their money in the (waste bank) and get them at their ideal time. The Application will indicate the location of household with waste to pick by our Upcycler team if it’s too much that need a vehicle. Additionally the application will locate and direct the households with waste to recycling companies.  Upcycler team will collect household managed plastic waste and will be taken to our collection centers.

Pendeza shelters as a social business focusing on the well-being for all people irrespective of the background, culture, race and language. We are working with both the youth, women, orphans, the physically disabled and people with auditory disability. The nature of our work creates room for all to participate in available activities.

Language Diversity: we provide support for multiple languages and dialects, to enable communication and understanding across different communities and cultures. Additionally we execute different activities for the literate and illiterate who work in the same environment. This is to ensure that the communication flow is fit and the environment accommodates everyone.

Ethically we promote the consideration of the potential impact on various communities and encouraging transparency and accountability in pendeza shelters applications. We treat all equality putting respect and equity at forefront creating a unified entity.

We have tailored and categorized the nature of work to be accessible to people with disabilities and provides features that facilitate equitable access to information and resources. People with disabilities are mainly working in sorting, compaction and handcraft producing different products like bag making while seated.

Our data is diverse and representative of different groups, including people of different races, genders, ethnicity, and cultures creating a platform of togetherness. Our main objective is to ensure that pendeza shelters operations and developments are inclusive and equitable, promoting diversity and reducing the potential for bias in all aspects of life.

Our business provides value to the population by creating products and services that meets the people’s needs and wants. We construct houses for the homeless to provide them with better accommodations.  We involve people in the construction process by providing them with employment opportunities especially collection of bottles, sorting, compacting bottles (turning bottles into eco-bricks) and construction. Every process is paid. This offerings improves their lives in various ways, such as providing convenience, saving time and money, improving health and well-being, and enhancing overall quality of life.

Our handcraft system of product making have also created value by generating jobs and incomes which contributes to economic growth and prosperity. Currently we are making water proof bags from polythene bags, plastic dustbin from bottles, flower vessels, and jewelries. Our women and youth sell back their products to the company and the company distributes the products to partner center and organizations. We have improved their livelihood and have been able to cater for their families.

Our most beneficiaries have been the homeless households in refugee settlement, school dropouts, single mothers and the disabled. And the customers have been the craft shops, tourism centers and innovation centers with shops.

Our model is based on labour based approach of using utilizing human than machinery with a focus of improving people’s livelihood. Our model flow is collecting plastic waste-skills development-employment creativity-improved standards of living.

Pendeza Shalters is a high-breed social business that is both for profit and nonprofit. We construct eco-houses from plastic bottles. Our plan is to get money from every building we construct in form of profits. Each house we cost it 30% of the total budget as profits. This will be one of our revenue stream of our project. Our project does not only deal in construction, we also have plastic waste handcraft making focusing on the production of products from polythene bags, plastic bottles and rubber for selling. This is primarily done by women and youth to improve their livelihood.  The products are sold back to pendeza shelters and the company sells to the potential customers. By implementing this structure, we are earning money through profit made from each item sold.

We hope to design a mobile application to support waste pickers to get connected to recycling companies. Whoever subscribes to our platform we earn a commission. We target both waste pickers and plastic waste dealers who are struggling to connect with potential buyers.

We hope to get money through donations and grants especially for huge needs in the company like machinery, structures and land for the building our factory. This shall be done also through partnerships and collaborations with potentials organizations that can support our work.

We have so far been awarded 4 contracts of worth 20,000$ to construct small and medium houses each with 2-3 rooms in Bidibidi refugee settlements and communities in Uganda. These houses were directly sponsored by SINA (Social Innovation Academy). This has been our main funder of our work.

We received 3194$ from Jangu international to construct visitors room at Jangu International premises. This supported us to exhibit our new innovation in construction.

We received 9,858$ from SINA to construct a training center at Arise Youth Foundation in kyaka ii refugee settlement. This was a project incubation center for marginalized youth to come up with projects.

We received funding of worth 1,805$ from UNLEASED (POTENTIAL IN MOTION) as labour to construct an innovative youth center and working rooms in Nakivale Refugee settlement.

All these funding were for constructing plastic bottles houses. Over 600 people employed as plastic waste picker, sorters, compactors and builders.