Developing skills and local capacity for a better quality of life

DW's main activities in Burkina Faso are training and assistance to both men and women.

In order to increase sustainable skills in the region, enabling the inhabitants to earn a living and to improve their quality of life, DW runs training courses and various forms of assistance on several levels:

• Initial training in woodless construction for rural builders
• Training for woodless construction site supervisors and trainers
• Training in designing woodless construction buildings and drawing plans
• Training in preparing estimates for woodless construction buildings
• Training in setting up non profit associations and economic interest groups (GIE)
• Training female potters in the production of ceramic household products and buildings components
• Training architects, engineers and technicians to use Woodless Construction
  

The programme for beginner builders in use since 1992 divides the training process into two stages.
Stage one, lasting three weeks, begins with a discussion of the theory and principles of each aspect of the woodless construction building process.
Immediately after each point has been discussed in theory, the trainees move to hands-on practice, working either on specially designed full-scale training structures or on a layout on the ground. Using training structures means that there is no stigma about getting something wrong, because the work that is done is solely for training purposes. The programme uses four main types of training structure to teach vault building, dome building and arches. All the training structures teach good masonry skills. After the training, some of these structures are integrated into courtyard walls, others taken down and the bricks reused.
Most trainees acquire woodless construction techniques quite readily, although not all learn at the same speed, and some of the best builders have taken a while to develop confidence. Paradoxically, learning to build the vaults and the domes is almost the easiest part of the process, because all trainees begin with no previous idea of how to build these roof forms. By contrast, helping builders who have previous experience of wall building unlearn the bad masonry habits that abound in West Africa has often been more problematic.
Stage two lasts some five weeks and involves work on several real, full scale buildings, from laying out, through roof construction and the installation of doors and windows. Every trainee builder is required to build his or her own small house as part the training programme. This shows their neighbours (and potential clients) what a modest Woodless Construction building resembles.
After the two stages of the training period, the trainees' performance is assessed and a certificate awarded to successful participants. In the months and sometimes years after initial training, individual masons continue to benefit from support and guidance provided by DW. Wherever possible, refresher courses are offered in later years to upgrade the skills of those who are interested.

 

These various training programmes are complemented by manuals in French and in local languages:

• a trainer's manual
• a builder's summary sheets
• guidelines for preparing cost estimates
• guidelines for drawing Woodless Construction plans
• guidelines for setting up associations and economic interest groups
• Woodless Construction maintenance manual