American Builder Developer and Businessman J Lawrence Davenport, has created a skills development training program in South Africa, while building cement homes reinforced by steel, quality green homes, that don’t crack, he builds them faster than using traditional methods and is considered to have touched the nerve of this housing crisis.
Davenport who is based in Cape Town South Africa for over 10 years, says that while many parts of Africa, South America, India and parts of China in particular, still experience considerable levels of urban sprawl. Over Crowding in these housing developments ought to be a serious aspect in the conversation, of addressing the global housing crisis.
Building small homes on top of one another, lack of proper sanitation, medical accessibility and inferior buildings, contribute in major ways to this housing crisis. Infrastructure, bulk services, highways, social centers, safe play areas, hospitals, clinics, places of worship, police stations and schools, have to be included in every community.
The focus of the housing crisis, isn’t in the financing of the various developments, it is in the skill of the builder, his workers and inferior building materials. In the last 10 years, Philanthropist, from all over the world have been throwing money and governments have been consistently approving housing aid programs, yet it doesn’t seem to have made a dent. But now when the world appears to be concerned over the new buzz word’ global housing crisis’ money doesn’t seem to be the answer.
Governments are responsible for administering tender processes and establishing protocols for insuring that the standard of housing is maintained. When you have inept builders and state officials that are inexperienced in the process, you cannot excluded this as a major contributor to the backlog and solving the perspective housing issues at home.
As I travel around the world and Sub-Saharan Africa, it’s hard not to notice the millions, upon millions of people that are unemployed. It’s also obvious that the standard of housing is grossly neglected.
In these overcrowded area’s you will find worn-out bridges, water ways, roads, cracking homes, in communities where the only skill that you find are street games, drugs, music and ultimate boredom.
I’m a product of public schools, government housing projects in Ohio USA; it didn’t force us to commit crimes. It wasn’t just the times; it was self respect, role models, a system that motivated success and work ethic. It was coupled with Jobs, skills development, hands on training programs and constant support from family and friends. Look I’m not naïve enough to think it’s just that simple. I’m just pointing out that having a job and a skill makes up for inferior labor and bad housing developments.
Many of my American business associates seem to think that because there are so many people in Africa and South America, there shouldn’t be problem finding adequate builders, sufficient labor and material to build houses, I disagree profusely. If the best builder, skilled artisan is average age 60 and the only trade school in the city is a computer school and the only training academy in the country is a how to be a hip hop mogul, this crisis will continue.
I am a proponent of skills training and skills development programs for builders, tied to on the job training and training with production programs. If you make it a jobs creation program, the money it would take to create competent people would pay for itself over and over for years to come. To give people a chance to earn money, to take care of their families and buy some of what they see in the movies will generate a sparkling economy that you won’t be able to count. If you build smaller communities where people can live like human beings and keep the money in the community by only training local people to build their own homes will manifest itself in to co operation from the people.
I have experienced it first hand, in a disadvantaged community in Cape Town South Africa called Lavender Hill. Pastor Mark Vandayar from the False Bay Anglican Diocese went off shore to the USA/Europe to find money and got gap funding from the False Bay Diocese to fund a community project known as the Lazarus Project. The South African government I believe because of political affiliations didn’t think the project was viable for this disadvantage community.
It would seem that my analogy of inept officials and inexperience played a major role in the government’s non participation. We followed the President’s 2009 campaign speech: We Created Jobs, We establish training and skills development programs and future rate payers, entrepreneurs are being created. But what do you think?
Despite continued marketing of the project to date, the Lazarus Project has been ignored by local and national government structures. It hasn’t had the participation from the very people who should be taking note, again who administers the standard?
Pastor Mark recommended several unskilled and semi-skilled people from Lavender Hill for us to use in our pilot training program. We created a training platform designed and structure by Victor Winn to erect a 798 sm2 double story church building, using a building product that uses steel and cement to create a building that is easy to train people. Victor is an experience tool designer, engineer and welder. He is program manager for the new South African National Tool initiative NTI /Mpower Program, which is tooling training company from the USA. His technical training skills made it possible for the trainee’s to adapt quickly to this building method, thus creating a training manual that will make our training program internationally certified.
Williem Loggenberg , a young South African quantity Surveyor and builder was hired to plan and project manage this historic initiative. Yes it wasn’t easy I’m the first to admit. The word challenge is the best way to define the journey. William was creative in liaising with the semi-skilled on our team of 24, to extract their various talents.
What we uncovered however, was that our product was superior for this project. I solicited help from experienced building partners Sonmar Construction (Builders of up market Homes and apartments) from Durban located in Kwazulu Natal. They designed a method (patented) of spraying cement on to this expanded metal core product in 1995, to form a solid wall that doesn’t crack, is impenetrable and bullet proof, able to survive category 5 hurricanes and built on site. They provided invaluable expertise in the training platform which established the benchmark early. For more information on how this program can scratch your global housing issues please email me and I will send you information. J Lawrence Davenport Email: jldavenport@
