Kleiwerks International

Versión en Español – WASI Spanish version

“If we are to save the planet as a living, healthy, natural place for all beings, women will have to lead.”  Ana Elena Obando, WASI Delegate, Costa Rica

WASI IS…THE WOMEN OF THE AMERICAS SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE
WASI is a Kleiwerks International Sustainability Initiative that is launching in 2012. WASI brings together ecological design build specialists with women from leading sustainability organizations.

Mission: WASI is an action-oriented alliance of women leaders who construct, educate, organize, and advocate for strong and empowered communities through ecological design-build practices, with the aim of creating a socially and ecologically resilient world.

Vision: We envision women leading the building of thriving communities that include healthy shelter, food, water and environments that are harmonious with the natural world and local cultures.

Goals: To inspire peer-based local, regional and global alliances of women who:
1) lead ecological design-build projects that affirm, revive and refine indigenous building practices,
2) generate local participation that builds thriving, empowered communities, and
3) create healthy, long-lasting and integrated environments that support the well-being of all.

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WHY WOMEN?
WASI supports women, who make up 70% of the world’s poorest people and are subject to economic and social injustices more often than men. When women have the skills, leadership training, and support networks in ecological design-build practices and appropriate technologies so that they can build their own houses and community centers, can provide not only the means for basic survival, but for lasting security and self-determination. Women are powerful allies in sustainable development because they most often lead efforts to secure water, food, fuel, education and healthcare for their families and communities. Thus, women are in a prime position to connect deeply with, and implement new socially and ecologically sustainable practices. Training women to build environmentally, economically, and socially fair projects that serve their communities mobilizes them as a formidable force for change.

For the price of one house: Because of the phenomenal efforts of talented and dedicated women, the entire WASI initiative costs the same as a single-family home in the United States. Please join us in making a difference today:

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RESULTS

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TOPICS & TECHNIQUES
At the two-week training convergence, WASI’s women will engage in strategic alliance building and development through women’s leadership activities, as well as planning around projects, programs and outreach. We will share best design-build practices through the daily hands-on construction of several projects. The focus will be on the use of local, natural and free materials, rapid construction, solutions for areas that suffer natural disasters, and buildings that can be made without machines or electricity, including:

• Natural wall systems: Adobe, strawdobe, cob, slipstraw, wattle and daub, paja reke, chorizo, strawbale, compressed earth block, super adobe/earth bag
• Wood-fired heating and cooking systems: An earthen stove, earthen oven, solar cooker
• Foundation systems: Drainage, foundations, earthen floors
• Roof systems: Living roofs, connections to earthen walls
, water catchment
• Natural finishes: Exterior and interior earthen plasters and paints, sculpture
• Building systems: Installation of windows, doors, electric, plumbing
• Wood building: Timber framing and/or round pole construction, bamboo in temperate climates
• Design systems: Permaculture, passive solar, “A Pattern Language”
• Water and waste systems: Rainwater and waste catchment, filtration, and re-use

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TEAM DETAILS
Participation in WASI is by invitation only. Upon completion of Year One, the 65 women will become Affiliates of Kleiwerks International, receiving further support and helping to grow the WASI collective as a formidable force of women leaders across the Americas. The team will perform the following tasks throughout the year:

30 Delegates
Delegates will join in teams of two, representing 15 countries. Throughout the year, they will: 1) Work with their local communities to construct buildings that serve local needs, such as schools, council halls, healing sanctuaries, birthing centers, etc; 2) Train a minimum of 100 people how to do the same by including them in the design-build process; 3) Share updates, photos, videos and community testimonials; 4) Provide feedback and support to the WASI Alliance.

20 Global Peers
Global Peer teams support: 1) Media, 2) Logistics, and 3) Fundraising. Their focus is on PR, multimedia storytelling, documentation, fundraising, partnerships and growth of the initiative as a whole.

15 Design-Build Specialists
Design-Build Specialists will provide technical and programmatic instruction and expertise for the design build projects and the field projects, as well as overall organizational and global network support for WASI.

Other participants
If you would like to participate, there are available positions and community partnerships for groups and individuals. If you are interested, please contact WASI@kleiwerks.org.

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SCHEDULE
• Two-week leadership training convergence: November, 2012. Place TBD.
• 15 community building projects and trainings in progress: Ongoing, starting April 2012
• Monthly community media updates: April 2012 – March 2013
• Quarterly conference calls: Starting March 2012

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GET INVOLVED
There are multiple ways to participate in this movement!
Find out how here

Photos credited to Kleiwerks International, alumni, affiliates and friends.

Kleiwerks was born with one woman answering her heart’s calling: to build sustainably and affordably for and with her community. In 1998, Janell Kapoor attended a natural building training that would determine her life’s work. She began facilitating trainings and working on natural building projects in and around Asheville, North Carolina, honing her skills and helping to establish the regional natural building community.

Kleiwerks became Kleiwerks International when Janell was serendipitously invited to lead an adobe building training in Thailand in 2001. The training garnered more interest than anyone could have imagined. KI facilitated several more trainings in Thailand over the next few years, helping to spark a national mud-building movement driven by KI’s alumni and a rapidly spreading web of local natural builders and activists.

Kleiwerks International has since grown into a global network of innovative design specialists dedicated to reviving and refining the art and joy of natural building and living. Working only by local invitation, KI collaborates with communities to create ecological and social resilience through natural building and whole systems solutions. Over the course of our operation we have offered hands-on natural building workshops, internationally-certified permaculture design courses, sustainability leadership trainings, public presentations and sponsorship of our partners’ events. Our programs have aimed to strengthen local leadership by supporting regional networks of sustainability activists; we work primarily with local groups, dedicated sponsors and on-the-ground experts in our mission to improve environments, economies, and quality of life. Our partner communities and alumni have gone on to create a vast array of safe, affordable, and sustainable homes, schools, orphanages, villages, community centers, and other enriching public works. A great many have started their own initiatives to spread natural building and whole systems design, and our network grows ever wider.

By the numbers: Since 2001, Kleiwerks International has…

• Worked in over 35 countries
• Trained 3,639 program graduates
• Taught 12,000 people
• Sponsored 187 educational programs
• Built 40+ community projects and centers
• Collaborated with a consortium of specialists who have collectively worked in 52+ countries and offer 400+ years of experience
• Directly helped to initiate 3 regional movements in Southeast Asia, South America, and the United States

Currently, KI is refining our unique brand of activism by launching a set of trainings based on an innovative new model: the Kleiwerks International Sustainability Initiatives. We are also pursuing a variety of activities to document the state of our movement and lend strength to the global network of natural building and permaculture activists to which we belong.

Take a look at this video about the history and mission of Kleiwerks International:

DONATE

For the cost of a single-family home, 60 women across the Americas will build 15 community centers, schools, and clinics that will benefit thousands of people.

Make it happen! Make a tax-deductible donation today.

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FUNDRAISE

Join our team of champions! Help raise funds amongst your friends and family on behalf of a woman and project that you most want to support. Sign up on Crowdrise, our fundraising platform and start spreading the word. Contact us for further details.—

SPONSOR

We have incredible sponsorship opportunities and benefits with you. Please contact us for details.
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Photo credit: Ben Ummer -2003

“FROM THE EARTH, A VILLAGE IS BORN”
by Brendan Conley, Fall 2002

Appeared in the “Asheville Global Report” and in “Building Without Borders” 2004 – Joseph Kennedy, New Society Publishers

The group includes Buddhist monks, Thai students and professionals, villagers displaced by development projects, and farang, or Westerners–several hundred people in all. They are all spending a month in rural Chaiyaphum province building Mun Yuen, a sustainable self-sufficient community and the nation’s first earthen village. “We are building a community, not just houses,” said Thanai Uthaipattrakoon, who quit his job as a conventional architect to teach– and learn– natural building. “I want people to know that they can design and build their own homes,” he said. (more…)