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A life-saving eco-home and garden sponsored by Christian Aid is set to be a dramatic centre piece to the October Grand Designs Live NEC show (6-8 October 2006).
Christian Aid will be transporting visitors to the show from the heart of England to a green and global village with the aim of raising awareness of the charity’s work addressing the impact of climate change in some of the world’s poorest communities. • Visit our eco-house online Grand Designs Live is based on the successful talkback THAMES series for Channel 4, which is presented by design guru Kevin McCloud. The show is committed to being as green as possible. Presenter Kevin McCloud says: XSustainability has moved from being a fringe issue to something that touches every aspect of our lives.’ The eco-home is inspired by Christian Aid-supported communities around the globe. The home will feature four separate displays representing how each of the communities is adapting to climate change, how they are dealing with the consequences and protecting their surrounding environment. Visitors to the display will get a feel for life in Honduras, Central America, where people are tackling deforestation, preparing for hurricanes and increasingly heavy tropical storms. Bangladesh and Indonesia are spotlighted in the Asia section which will look at the implication of rising sea levels and flooding. While in Africa the focus is the latest drought and food crisis in Kenya. The final part of the display focuses on the UK and Christian Aid’s campaign to encourage people to take action on climate change by reducing their own carbon emissions, adapting their homes and campaigning with Christian Aid for more government action to stop global warming. Eco-design features will include walls that are built using sustainable techniques that not only protect the environment but can also protect their inhabitants from disasters. The display will also show how communities in the developing world are embracing an eco-friendly way of life. The Honduras home features a strengthened rammed-earth wall, insect-repellent decorative paint taken from local plants, a recycled tyre defence wall and tree replanting. In the Asia section visitors can step up onto a home raised on stilts to avoid flooding, featuring biogas and emergency assistance packs, whilst in Africa the homes feature ventilation systems, rain water collecting butts and solar panels. People will also be able to support Christian Aid’s work by Xpurchasing’ a virtual Present Aid gift, some of which are featured in the home, including tree saplings and solar panels. When you buy a gift the money doesn’t necessarily buy that item. In order to make sure your gift has the maximum impact; our partners and Christian Aid choose the precise gifts needed for each community. But we guarantee your financial gift will be put into a closely related fund that supports Christian Aid’s work, energy, emergencies and disaster preparedness, agriculture and livestock, health including HIV/AIDS, water and environment, education, training and campaigning on behalf and throughout the developing world.
Cattle walk past valley in rural Kenya.
Livestock is a major source of earnings
and so extreme weather conditions
threaten the livelihoods of hundreds of
thousands of Kenyans.
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Drought has become a more frequent
byproduct of the ravages of climate
change.
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Diarmuid Gavin proudly unveils the
spring well in the village of Kitwe
which he has opened.
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Broken stones are laid aside at the
Mwolooto wa Kwa eka water project in
Kilome. These slabs of stone will be
placed around the capped spring so
people have easy access to the water
source.
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Women from Christian Aid partner BIDII
collect water at the Mwolooto wa Kwa eka
project in Kilome, rural Kenya.
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Damaris Ndunda, a farmer helped by BIDII.
Five years ago, she grew nothing on her
land but, with training from BIDII, she
has now grown 140 citrus trees and has a
water filtering system. She has enough
fruit to provide for her five children
and others in her village.
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Example of multi-storey garden in
Machakos, Kenya where plants are built
on top of each other to conserve soil
and water. Water conservation has become
a life-saving issue in the wake of
climate change. Droughts and floods now
occur every four or five years. It used
to be every two decades.
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Diarmuid plants a tree as part of the
project to help prevent soil erosion so
that farmers can grow more crops on
their
land
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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
