Women building resilient manyattas

In Maasai communities across Kajiado and Narok Counties, the manyatta — the traditional homestead at the heart of family life — is identity, heritage and women’s craftsmanship. For generations, Maasai women have built these homes by hand, using mud, cow dung, grass and timber with remarkable skill. 

Yet the same homes that hold such a deep cultural significance are also structurally fragile. During heavy rains, walls erode, demanding frequent and exhausting repairs — work that falls largely on women. Inside, smoke from open-fire cooking fills poorly ventilated spaces, contributing to respiratory illnesses among women and children. At the same time, water scarcity forces many women to spend hours everyday walking long distances to collect water for their families – time lost that could be reclaimed through simple rainwater harvesting systems integrated into the manyatta design

Women empowerment:
This initiative is more than a housing project, it is an investment in women. Working directly alongside the Maasai women, the initiative introduces EarthEnable construction technology that significantly increases structural durability while preserving the natural appearance of the home. The homes will also have better ventilation and lighting reducing indoor air pollution while energy-saving cookstoves will channel fumes safely out of the living space. Rainwater harvesting systems will bring a reliable water source directly to the home, reclaiming the hours women previously spent collecting water.

By equipping the Maasai women with advanced construction skills, it builds confidence, creates opportunities and strengthens their role as community leaders and custodians of tradition.

Opening the door to jigger-free homes

Jigger infestation can cause intense pain, discomfort, infection and in severe cases, lifelong disability. Children in endemic areas can miss weeks of school, while some never return.

Kenya’s national jigger eradication campaigns have shown that medical treatment alone is not enough. Treated individuals return to infested homes and are re-infected within weeks, because the floor, the root of the problem, remains unchanged.

Habitat Kenya’s floor improvement initiative tackles the problem as its source: the floor itself. 

In urban and peri-urban areas, cement screed floors — a durable concrete finish applied directly over earthen floors will provide a clean, parasite-hostile surface that lasts more than 20 years. In more remote communities where conventional cement supply is difficult and costly, earth-enabled technology will offer an innovative alternative: a compressed, stabilised earth floor using largely on-site materials, sealed with a natural polish. Both approaches are affordable, locally grounded and built to last.

The improved floors are paired with health education on jigger prevention, household hygiene and foot care, ensuring families sustain the gains long after the construction is complete. The goal is 10,000 improved floors, directly benefiting 50,000 Kenyans by 2030.

A movement worth joining

Safe, decent housing changes everything.  Through the Let’s Open the Door campaign, you can help create stronger manyattas for Maasai families and support jigger-free homes across Kenya.

Every gift opens a door to possibility.

Donate today and help open the door to health, dignity and opportunity.

A key feature of the event was Habitat for Humanity Kenya’s demonstration of Compressed Stabilized Soil Blocks (CSSB) and Interlocking Stabilized Soil Blocks (ISSB). Produced using locally available materials, the technologies can reduce construction costs, shorten building timelines and lower environmental impacts while increasing access to durable housing suited to local conditions.

Through its Integrated Housing Support Project, Habitat for Humanity Kenya’s has already supported the construction of 12 teacher and community housing units using CSSB and ISSB technologies, enabled community enterprises to produce more than 21,000 stabilized soil blocks, and expanded the adoption of alternative building technologies through partnerships with Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions.

Speaking during the forum, Habitat Kenya National Director Dr. Eileen Mokaya, highlighted the importance of locally produced building materials in reducing housing costs while creating livelihood opportunities for local communities.

“Often, transporting construction materials costs more than the materials themselves,” she said. “By producing quality building materials where construction is taking place, we can significantly reduce costs while creating economic opportunities for local artisans, especially youth and women.”

Laikipia County Deputy Governor H.E. Reuben Kamuri echoed the importance of collaboration, noting that addressing Kenya’s housing challenge requires collective action across government, the private sector and communities. He also highlighted secure land tenure as a critical enabler of housing development and reaffirmed the County Government’s commitment to working with Habitat for Humanity Kenya to improve access to land documentation.

Beyond the policy discussions and technology demonstrations, the forum celebrated the graduation of 48 youth and women artisans who completed National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) certification in masonry and sanitation construction. Strengthening local skills and technical capacity is an important step toward enabling communities to deliver and sustain affordable housing and sanitation solutions. 

As Africa continues to face a growing housing deficit, experiences from Laikipia in Kenya demonstrate how locally driven innovation, technical skills development and multi-sector partnerships can make affordable housing more accessible, support livelihoods and help open the door to safe, decent housing for more families.

Through a community-driven Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Habitat for Humanity Zambia partnered with residents and local government to transform access to essential services. More than 16,000 people now benefit from clean water and safe sanitation.

Community members were at the heart of the solution. 

Residents helped plan and deliver the project, working alongside 40 trained local artisans. WASH committees and Water Watch Groups were also established, and residents were trained in WASH social accountability, giving the community the knowledge and structures to protect and sustain what they built long after the project concluded.

The project delivered significant infrastructure across the settlement:

• 15 solar-powered communal water kiosks, each equipped with a 10,000-litre storage tank.
• 80 pour-flush toilets serving 481 people. 
• Installed handwashing stations and upgraded sanitation blocks to be disability friendly with provisions for menstrual hygiene management in four schools.

For Mary, the impact was felt in the most personal way. 

“Before, we feared the toilet would collapse when it rained.” she says. “Now we have a safe, dignified toilet with a bathroom. My family no longer depends on neighbours.”

The project also opened doors of opportunity by establishing a nursery garden for waste recycling and income generation, ensuring what was built in Makululu is sustained by the community for generations to come.

For low-income families, health and adequate housing can feel like an impossible tradeoff. Many are incremental builders—shut out of formal housing markets and unable to afford high‑quality materials or certified labor—who construct their homes slowly, with whatever resources are available. In places like Kenya, high material costs and long‑standing building practices mean that many homes, particularly in rural areas, have grass‑thatched roofs, unsealed eaves, poorly sized or unscreened windows, ill‑fitting doors, and insufficient mosquito screening. It creates ideal entry points for mosquitoes that spread malaria. Bakari’s home was no exception.

Yet even small improvements can make a difference.

In sub‑Saharan Africa, Habitat’s healthy housing programming includes malaria prevention and water, sanitation and hygiene interventions. Replacing dirt floors with concrete reduces parasitic infections. Repairing leaky roofs eliminates mold. Installing screens keeps disease‑carrying insects out. Even simple home upgrades can dramatically reduce vulnerability to malaria and other illnesses.

“We want malaria to become a top‑of‑mind issue for everyone involved in the housing sector—not just for public health actors,” says Roland Pearson, vice president at Habitat for Humanity’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter. “When we frame malaria as a challenge that can be addressed through smart, cost‑effective housing improvements, we can encourage the entire housing value chain to incorporate targeted solutions into their products and services. That’s how malaria prevention becomes mainstream, and how homes become safer for families across all income levels.”

Innovations that close the door to malaria

To strengthen the links between health and malaria free homes, Habitat’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter is helping drive scientific, community‑informed and market‑ready solutions that reduce mosquito entry into homes.

In 2021, the Terwilliger Center partnered with SeaFreight Labs to launch an open‑innovation challenge seeking practical and affordable ways to modify existing homes and reduce malaria transmission in Kenya. Among 78 submissions, the winning concept, “Mosquito Free Homes: Air Cavities and Screens,” proposed a simple and affordable modification which included the installation of air cavities for improved ventilation and lighting while blocking mosquito entry, combined with striped nets and Velcro‑based screens for windows, doors, and eaves.

The solution caught the attention of local stakeholders. When tested at the Kenya Medical Research Institute in Kisumu, this solution reduced indoor mosquitoes by an astonishing 89%.

Though initial field pilots in rural communities raised concerns about aesthetics, privacy and cold temperatures during cold months, the innovation generated valuable insights that continue to shape new prototypes and community‑driven refinements.

Habitat’s collaboration with KEMRI deepened in 2022, leading to a landmark peer-reviewed, field study published in Nature Medicine in early 2026. The study evaluated low‑cost modifications—including cool roofs, cross‑ventilation, papyrus‑mat ceilings and mosquito screening—across rural homes in western Kenya. And the results were clear:

• Screens reduced the number of malaria‑carrying mosquitoes indoors by 77%.
• Cool roofs significantly lowered indoor temperatures by up to 3.3°C, helping households withstand extreme heat.
• 85% of participating families expressed their willingness to invest their own resources in similar upgrades.

In addition to the immediate health and wellbeing benefits of these interventions, the interest of families in investing in these homes is crucial. It signals real potential for long‑term, market‑driven adoption of healthier housing designs.

“Collaborating with Habitat for Humanity has strengthened our ability to test housing‑related malaria interventions in real‑world settings,” Dr. Bernard Abong’o, lead researcher at KEMRI’s Centre for Global Health Research. “KEMRI brings the research, and Habitat contributes practical insights into how housing improvements are adopted, built, and financed by low‑income households. This combination helps ensure solutions are evaluated not only for their technical performance, but also for their affordability and suitability for the communities that are most affected.”

Mzee Bakari has seen firsthand how these simple home modifications have improved life for his family. Sealed gaps and screened openings now keep mosquitoes out, and a reflective paint coating on the corrugated iron roof has reduced indoor heat and even helped soften the sound of rain. “Nowadays we sleep peacefully,” he says. “We do not experience mosquitoes in the house.”

In Kwale County, Agnes’ family bore the constant toll of mosquitoes and oppressive heat. Malaria was a regular and exhausting presence in their home. “Every few weeks, one of my children would come down with malaria,” she recalled. After several months of community sensitization, Agnes partnered with KEMRI to implement improvements based on the study’s findings. The impact was felt almost immediately. “The house is now cool, and the number of mosquitoes has reduced. We can sit comfortably indoors, and we haven’t had a case of malaria recently,” she said.

For families, these benefits extend far beyond mosquito reduction. Cooler homes improve thermal comfort and reduce heat‑related illness, while better ventilation improves air quality. Well-placed screens on windows and doors protect against a range of disease‑carrying insects—not only the malaria-transmitting Anopheles mosquito but also flies that spread other diseases.

Looking ahead

Despite promising advances, the work is far from over. In 2025, Habitat and SeaFreight Labs launched a second innovation challenge, “Reducing Malaria Spread with Improved Air Quality Ventilation,” to refine and optimize air cavity designs. As of March 2026, five promising concepts are undergoing community review before being tested in the community.

Meanwhile, the Terwilliger Center and KEMRI are advancing a new cluster randomized trial involving 300 households. This research will test scalable combinations of cooling and mosquito‑control solutions to identify the most` effective, affordable models for low‑income families. The goal is to ensure these innovations work not just in laboratories, but in real homes, built by local masons, purchased by families and sustained by markets.

The changes have also drawn interest from Bakari’s neighbors, many of whom are now curious about making similar improvements to their own homes. “Because of what I have seen and felt,” he says, “it is easy for me to convince others to try these modifications.”

Agnes is eager for others to benefit too, “Our lives are different. I would encourage my neighbors and anyone else to try out these interventions,” she concluded.

In Africa and around the world, Habitat works with communities to create homes designed not only for stability, but also for health. A decent, affordable and healthy home—one that keeps mosquitoes out, stays cool in rising temperatures, and supports the physical and mental well‑being of its occupants—is one of the most powerful tools against climate‑and disease‑related risks.

On World Malaria Day, we honor the families, researchers, local builders and community partners who are working together to create a world where home is a place of health.