When Radwa Rostom was a civil engineering student at Cairo’s Ain Shams University, she participated in charity work for underprivileged communities in the city’s informal settlement of Ezbet Abu Qarn.
After finishing her studies, Ms Rostom returned with a small team, aiming to improve the quality of life for local residents, most of whom live in poverty. She also trained with environmental engineering companies to acquire the technical skills to carry out her ideas.
In 2016, the young woman founded Hand Over, an Egyptian social enterprise that integrates construction into community development. This year, it was nominated for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
“Many companies design and build grand apartments, airports and buildings using traditional methods, which only a certain category of person can afford,” Ms Rostom says. “I wanted to build ‘humane’ housing for the marginalised, using eco-friendly materials.”
The technique is not only safer than modern construction methods, but also 25% cheaper. It also reduces heat and dampness within a building so that residents consume less energy, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 30%.
The company’s second project was a multi-specialist clinic in the remote village of Wadi Gharba in South Sinai, in collaboration with a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Catherine Exists.
A group of young doctors volunteered to work and live in the village alongside volunteer builders. Ms Rostom also lived in the area for more than four months until the project was complete.
Hand Over often collaborates with NGOs and local volunteers for community construction projects.
This was also the case for the company’s third project – a school for 300 students in Abu Ghadan, a village 80km from Cairo, built last year in partnership with the social charity Man Ahyaha.
Hand Over estimates that more than 1,000 people – students and those in need of affordable housing – have benefited from its projects.
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Source: The Straits Times, 30 June 2019