UPDATE: Thanks to our generous donors we were able to raise enough funding for our skilled, self-funded volunteers, Dan, Anian, Jayson and Oliver, to build a simple Village Shelter in Djamta!’ae in November 2025. This was a prototype that if successful can be adopted by other villages. So the villagers will give us feedback at their next meeting about how the building is working out for them. The space is multi-purpose and serves a variety of functions:

Community space: The shelter provides shade from the desert sun and protection from the rains. It has become a hub, a place to gather as the sole baobab tree is where visitors camp. It has already provided a focus for village life when the traditional fires cannot be lit (as in the rainy season).

Teaching space: It is a place where the elders, teachers or visitors can teach children and young adults. A sheltered space for lessons, workshops, and with the donation of a laptop and DVD, films to help learn English and wildlife films - hippos by infra-red camera at night is a popular favourite.

Craft space: It’s a space for villagers to make the crafts which they sell to support themselves. The women make ostrich shell jewellery and tan hides. The men make knives, bows and arrows, firesticks and other traditional items.

Solar power support: The structure now supports solar panels and a 3kW solar power system (see Solar Power Project). This has enabled the villagers to run a small freezer to store bush meat and avoid some of the hunger they currently experience. A locked storage room houses the solar inverter, batteries, etc. and Kxunta Daqm took a crash course in its maintenance.

Storage: There is a storage room under one end of the structure with shelving to store precious items that do not survive well in leaky tents. There is also the possibility of storage at ceiling height for things like the devil’s claw crop, and items that need to be kept out of reach of children.

Specification

This is a very simple steel post and beam construction with a single slope corrugated roof and ceiling. It is 12 metres long and 4 metres wide and resembles a car port. It is designed to be low cost and replicable to make it easier for other villages in the area to adopt. A second one is planned for Di//xao#oha village in November 2026 / Spring 2027 – funding permitting.