70 VN builders-entrepreneurs and 80 VN masons trained, 230 apprentices in training (representing an increase of 70% of the training ratio builders / apprentices since last year) .
800 vaults built in over 70 villages and districts (two-storey houses, mosques, churches, classrooms, dispensaries...) of which 24 in Mali (Ségou and Kati) in the first two years of activity in this country, and the first VN buildings in Sénégal (Tambacounda, Matam) and Togo (Dapaong).
By the end of the 2008/09 campaign, the VN builders’ order books are already full for the next campaign.
Many NGO’s and Associations are relying on the VN technique to construct buildings for their projects, 10 of which are now partners with AVN in relaying the programme.
Major improvements have been made in the organisation, staffing, quality control and data gathering procedures, of the AVN’s structure in Burkina Faso.
AVN now has a formally established presence in Mali, with an AVN representative based in Bamako responsible for liaison with clients and for organising recruitment and training of apprentices.
Financial partners (e.g. the Veolia Environment Foundation, the Hermes Foundation) are demonstrating their confidence in the programme by providing it with subsidies.
New technical developments such as the VN+ Reinforced Concrete (VN-RC) are arousing a lot of interest amongst clients and NGO’s needing to construct buildings for community use.
The results of the 2008 campaign confirm the earlier tendencies towards exponential growth : 140 new vaults built or under construction, and 25 new VN builders trained.
The programme is clearly responding to a real need , as is shown by the growing interest and involvement amongst the target populations. The strategic options being pursued by the AVN seem to correspond well to the prevalent socio-economic conditions in the Sahel.
It’s interesting to note the very rapid growth of the programme in Mali, after only two years, and without any organised awareness-raising campaign.
The growing success and reputation of VN builders is attracting more and more recruits to the programme: in total, over 3,000 man-months of salaries have been generated by the programme; unfortunately, the AVN is not yet able to cope with all the requests for training, as we are limited by the number of VN builders and sites available to take on new apprentices. .
An increasing number of VN builders’ families are living in VN houses , and we are trying to organise micro-credit facilities to help more VN builders to construct their own homes.
Around 70% of VN buildings so far are family homes, with communal buildings (13%), commercial buildings (12%), and agricultural constructions (6%) making up the remainder.