Did you know that the communities surrounding our schools in Togo and Benin are contributing to the construction of the schools in their areas by mixing and molding bricks out of sand? Today we wanted to highlight the process of making the bricks for the schools currently under construction.
The first step is gathering the materials! Community members are responsible for providing sand, water and bags of cement. They also need to rent equipment to produce the blocks. This equipment includes 4 block molds that are individually compressed to make each block.
Next, the sand, cement and water are mixed together and placed in the mold.
After the bricks are formed, they are laid out for 10 days to cure. During these 10 days, community members MUST keep the bricks wet the whole time. Failure to keep the bricks wet will result in a lack of structural security.
After the bricks are finished curing, they are ready for use. An average of 7500 bricks are needed for each project! We are so grateful for the community members who are working so hard to provide these bricks for their new schools!
