Housing & Hazards
& SAFE Bangladesh
SAFE (Simple Action For the Environment) Bangladesh has been set up by Ajit Roy, H&H’s first barefoot engineer (see newsletters), to raise awareness of environmental and safe building methodologies among rural communities.
This is Ajit with the first two-
SAFE will promote environmental issues by encouraging the planting of indigenous
tree species along the huge network of rural road banks and verges to create beautiful,
shady avenues where wildlife can flourish while stabilising the banks and providing
produce for the enjoyment of by-
Ajit and Robert planting a tree in 2007. Perhaps one day some of these trees will be used to build strong, resilient H&H structures!
SAFE plans to promote safe building methods through Action Research workshops of
the type developed by H&H students. Ajit led the first of these with help from collaborators
at BRAC University in April 2009, when 22 local builders and home-
In 2009 Housing & Hazards helped run a workshop in UK for 21 engineers to promote awareness of technical skills used in disaster relief at the same time and the two groups combined for an hour over a telephone conference link. We wonder whether this was the first time ever that participants 5000 miles apart joined forces to talk rural houses in the same workshop!
Participants in SAFE’s FIRST WORKSHOP
You can join one of these. See link for details of this year's international H&H/SAFE workshop
Link to more information on SAFE