HEALTH & RESILIENCE
Creating healthier home and community environments
EarthEnable creates healthier homes with custom, earthen floors for families across rural Rwanda and Uganda. EarthEnable eliminates unsanitary dirt floors and provides affordable, sanitary flooring that can be washed, cleaned, and used to build healthy home environments for millions of people.
Image courtesy of EarthEnable
EarthEnable trains masons and franchisees to sell and install high-quality, earthen floors that are composed of natural materials, an efficient and eco-friendly alternative to dirt floors.
EarthEnable’s work arose from a 2013 collaboration between Stanford graduate students and MASS Design, and has led to a dramatic reduction in childhood asthma, diarrhea, malnutrition, and parasitic infestations in Rwanda and Uganda. As of May 2021, EarthEnable’s floors have reached nearly 10,000 homes in Rwanda and Uganda.
With the help of Engineering for Change fellow, Simeon Bunani, EarthEnable designed a prototype house with a catalog of design details that can mitigate overheating, dampness, and poor ventilation.