Each home costs about $110. They are being built from clay and water by the refugees themselves, with the help of camp personnel and local technicians.
These adobe houses are cheap and of simple construction. The refugees prefer them to more elaborate temporary homes, which lack the thermal advantages of clay. Clay houses are cool in the hot summer months and warm in winter.
More than half of the 60,000 refugees now in the Shamshatoo Camp live in canvas tents. Caritas hopes to construct up to 7,000 of the adobe houses there.
