The story of Shambob
Practical Action
manufacturers in order to access the tools required for production, and to address other
community needs such as donkey drawn carts for water transportation. An increase in
confidence and trust has enabled Practical Action staff to work with the women of Shambob
to increase their skill base, for example, by offering training in food processing.
A cash based economy and urban markets
Engaging in the cash based economy Shambob’s leaders gather market intelligence. They
collect information from the merchants but also ask consumers, because they believe the
merchants may mis-inform them. They enquire about costs, selling prices, make comparisons
between the quality of the bricks and fix their price accordingly. Practical Action staff
facilitated the SBPC’s initial marketing efforts by supporting such activities as the production
of promotional pamphlets explaining the benefits of improved bricks. SBPC feel their best
customers are the NGOs. Recently relationships have been established with government
departments, who are useful in marketing their products. SBPC members feel that they have
increased their power base, they are now able to negotiate with public sector officials for the
necessary licences and to meet with senior officials. The co-operative not only provides for
greater communal wealth, it gives the community a bigger voice in local affairs.
Setting new standards
The project has been influential at the national
level in the development of a new standard for
bricks, which was promulgated in 1998. The
traditional brick size is very small; Shambob
bricks came into the market and managed to set
the required standard, by the Sudanese
Standards Administration. Kassala town is now
implementing the brick standards, with resulting
benefits. For instance, it is quicker to build with
bigger bricks, using less mortar to produce
better quality walls.
Whose assets increase?
“Coming from a marginalised group myself, I
know how important it is for someone to have
the capacity and the knowledge and the skills
required for interaction with the larger
community. They are turning away very slowly
from an agricultural community to a business
world, they are also absorbing what is
required to survive in a town. If given more
support I think the co-operative will go into
new areas, like production of new building
materials, like lime, they will try to develop
trade, in animals making use of their previous
skills.”
Jeremiah Bairiak, Project Manager and
Materials Engineer
Communal assets
There are communal assets now in Shambob which result directly from the investment of
project resources. One example is the community building, which served as a demonstration
of new building materials using new technologies. This building nevertheless reintroduced
traditional architectural forms suited to the local climate. The building serves the community
as school, adult training and health centre, social gathering place, as well as a forum for local
governance meetings.
Education
An increase of SBPC members’ incomes has
allowed some members to send their children to
school for the first time. They point to the
increased attendance at kindergarten by girls
and the new adult education activities held at
the community centre. In a participatory asset
mapping exercise, people used stones to
represent the types of resources available to
them. When asked about changes in education,
people placed one stone in the ‘before segment’
and seven stones in the ‘after segment’, saying
they now send more children to school, spend
more on books and uniforms.
“Before this co-operation project, the
benefits were going to others, but now with
all of us working, our money is bigger and
bigger… For instance we had only two
thousand Sudanese pounds. Now we get
more than six thousand per day, and this is
very useful for us. Economically we’ve
grown, we’ve become better than the
others. Also this is affecting the village -
even the people who’d left, before this
project, are beginning to come back.”
Adam Yusuf
7