The Jinkai Brick Project

According to the United Nations, over two million persons – most of which are widowed women and orphaned children – have been displaced in rural Northeast, North-central, and Northwest Nigeria due to ethno-religious violence. The problem is compounded by Nigeria’s significant shortage of housing, which the World Bank estimates at 17 million units.

Lack of housing and personal security negatively impacts health and well-being. While conducting medical outreach in the region in 2018, Nigerian-Canadian Dr. Emmanuel Gye observed that although providing healthcare to displaced persons is helpful, it is not enough. The problem is at the nexus of multiple fundamental determinants for health. 

In addition to losing their homes, affected individuals suffer socially and economically and have little to no means to improve their situation. Rebuilding is all but impossible due to lack of machinery and the high cost of raw materials. According to The Guardian Nigeria News, foreign currency exchange rates and the cost of labor and building materials have caused construction costs to increase 200% in the last two years. The price of cement alone has quadrupled in the last three years. Without housing, especially, and the community, stability, and security that comes with it, many women and children end up as economic and social refugees.

The conflicts have also compounded the problem of unemployment – again, especially amongst a young population. Unemployment and poverty reduce health and well-being, while eroding confidence and productive skills-building. Desperation and a lack of purpose often lead to more violence.

Jinkai has developed a creative building solution inspired by the work of the renowned architect Diébédo Francis Kéré who, while studying at the Technical University of Berlin, began designing a school for his home village of Gando in Burkina Faso. He collaborated with the village inhabitants to design and build a structure with earth, in the form of mud bricks, and a tin roof that was cooler and more comfortable than the area’s conventional concrete school buildings.

Stronger than traditional adobe, the mud bricks are composed of 95% mud and 5% cement, a mixture that is moldable when wet. While the inclusion of 5% cement is ideal for performance, the cement is often not required. When dry, the bricks are bulletproof, thermo-regulatory, hypoallergenic, and fire resistant – exposure to fire actually strengthens them. The energy-efficient production of the bricks from mostly locally sourced raw material makes them bio-based and environmentally friendly. The bricks feature grooves that interlock, eliminating the need for mortar.

The bricks are currently made using a locally fabricated machine. With grant support, we will implement an open-source machine called the Liberator IV Compressed Earth Brick (CEB) Press, designed by Missouri-based Open Source Ecology. The Liberator IV can produce 5000 bricks per day, compared to 1500 bricks per day now, for the same cost.

The roofs are made with the region’s conventional materials – such as bamboo and local thatching, but can also be made with wood or metal sheeting.

In 2020, Jinkai put out a call to Nigerian architecture students and recent graduates to create a structural design. Jinkai received 13 entries – all of which prioritized local tradition, relationship to the land, providing comfort, and the use of local materials. Jinkai selected three designs, all in the traditional circular shape. The winning design by an architectural student at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Bauchi was, in part, inspired by examples at the Jos Museum of Traditional Nigerian Architecture (MOTNA), a UNESCO center and a leading architectural technology training center for research.

After training individuals on how to mix the raw materials, operate the machinery, and assemble their structure, they are empowered to rebuild and establish a secure and comfortable home.

Our housing model is a creative and professionally executed design solution from students in Nigeria’s Architecture schools. The students desired to connect people and places – to honor tradition, relate to the land, bring comfort, use local materials, celebrate culture, investigate the future, and create a ‘home’ above shelter.

Our solution serves more than two million people that have been displaced Northeast, North-central, and Northwest Nigeria due to ethno-religious violence. This population mostly comprises young (70% are under 30 years of age), unemployed subsistence farmers who are uneducated or have received an elementary-level education. Because men are more likely to be killed during clashes, refugees are mostly women and children. These individuals have little to no means to improve their situation, while a lack of machinery and the high cost of raw materials makes rebuilding all but impossible.

Since 2016 we have journeyed with over 200 children who sought and found refuge at the House of Recab Orphanage in Jos, Nigeria. They and their families had been displaced from Northeastern Nigeria by the Boko Haram insurgency. We are also aware of the acute needs of many other vulnerable children and persons who are victims of clashes between the Fulani militia and local farmers. We commit to continue to serve as we feel led to journey with these folks as they rebuild their lives.

Jinkai’s solution empowers displaced persons to rebuild and establish secure and comfortable homes using mostly locally available materials. Jinkai has observed that women in particular are empowered. We insist that building projects include equal numbers of men and women. Women arrive expecting simply to support the men, but they often end up leading the projects.

The design and implementation of our solution has been guided by the local community from the start and is based on the materials and design concepts of Gando native and renowned architect Diébédo Francis Kéré, as well as Nigerian architecture students.

With both local and international networks, Jinkai’s team members’ roots in Nigeria equip us with the local knowledge and understanding of the regional political and cultural dynamics to effectively deliver this solution.

Jinkai’s Nigerian team’s main focus is on training and equipping individuals. Jinkai has trained 68 people to date. Our goal is to train 10 (5 women + 5 men) brick builders per month and then empower those groups to become trainers themselves.

Currently, contractors are conducting the open source manufacturing of the Compressed Earth Brick press. The team’s international network will play a crucial role in transitioning this manufacturing so that it is done locally. Jinkai’s Canadian support team (The Jinkai Initiative - a nonprofit) has engaged the University of Alberta’s mechanical engineering department to create a blueprint adaptation so that, with proper training, local technical engineering students can assemble the machines and electric controls from its components.

Jinkai completed and commissioned its first structure in January 2023, respectively, outside of the city of Jos. It is currently occupied by a widowed mother. There are four other structures currently being built in a different community that’s been deemed safe to return to. As part of commercial projects, a hotel and orphanage have been rebuilt using Jankai’s solution and by workers trained by the Jinkai Aid Initiative.

The design set, process, and machinery have been identified. In partnership with Rotary International, Jinkai has trained 68 individuals to operate the machinery, with 10 additional individuals set to receive training in April 2024. 

The goal is to continue training groups of 10 individuals per community per month, and empower these individuals to train others in turn.

MIT, and its renowned School of Architecture and Planning, is the preeminent science and technology institution in the world. And MIT Solve is one of the most active and rigorous forums for advancing solutions with global social impact. 

Jinkai would welcome affiliation with such a prestigious school, brand, and impact program. Solve’s focus on leveraging technology to increase peace and prosperity aligns exactly with our mission. Beyond the cash prizes, gaining access to MIT resources and engineering minds would be tremendously helpful in both solidifying and scaling Jinkai’s global economic prosperity impact goals.

Market barriers that Jinkai hopes Solve can help to overcome include the adaptation of the technology for local use and the ability to deploy not only across rural Nigeria but to other regions that require housing. Support to conduct evaluation research that collects measurable impacts would help Jinkai to improve, scale, and attract investment to the solution too.

Jinkai means “mercy” in Hausa, and is a derivative of “jinka”, which means “roof”.

Our solution is innovative because it combines ancestral building materials and design; a compressed earth brick press made available by the modern open-source concept; and individual empowerment that enables communities to rebuild and gain employment. This hyperlocal, community-driven solution can be applied to solve the housing problem currently being experienced in many parts of the world.

What’s more, our solution takes a systems approach to the problem. Conflicts created in part by economic insecurity cause the destruction of houses, which leads to poor health and life disruption for displaced persons – disproportionately women and children. By providing open source equipment and the technical skills training to use them to manufacture remarkably durable building bricks from inexpensive natural materials, and by championing women as leaders of local construction projects that implement traditional designs, our solution provides the stability of both quality housing and quality employment that demonstrates resilience, buffers shocks, promotes and sustains peace, generates new economic opportunities, improves health, and showcases (locally, nationally, and internationally) inclusive and attainable asset ownership. We believe that our solution meets Solve’s Global Economic Prosperity Challenge.

Jinkai aims to foster economic empowerment; and increase the safety and security of displaced persons, with the overall goal of improving community wellness. 

Jinkai trains individuals to use the Compressed Earth Brick (CEB) press and provides them with the machines, water tanks, and shovels, at no cost. In return, Jinkai requires that the individuals establish a cooperative, with a proper governance structure. These cooperatives then use these resources to find paid work and/or rebuild their community.

Outputs include individual and community empowerment; increased housing availability; and new opportunities to earn income. 

When individuals are economically empowered, feel safe and secure within their homes, and are able to earn income from new economic opportunities, they’ve satisfied their basic needs and can contribute more fully to increased community wellness. Healthier communities contribute to reduced stresses, mistrust, and conflict – hopefully ending negative cycles of violence and destruction.

Entho-religious violence is often a result of economic instability, which is a major issue in Nigeria. Exploding populations and lack of economic opportunities for the large young demographic, combined with decreasing resources (e.g. herdsmen migrating farther south to feed their flocks due to the impacts of climate change) are major contributors. These stresses breed mistrust, which in turn breeds conflict.

Our impact goals include economic empowerment, especially among women, as well as increased security and community wellness. These factors will translate to the secondary goals of reduced disease burden and child poverty.

We measure our progress based on the number of people we have trained, the number of jobs the trainees are engaged in, the number of buildings that have been built, and the feedback we receive from communities regarding how the project has impacted their lives.

The core technology is a combination of ancestral building material and design, biomimicry, and a modern compressed earth press made available by the open-source concept. The mud bricks contain 95% mud and 5% cement, but can be made without the cement component. 

The Liberator IV Compressed Earth Brick (CEP) Press was designed to produce the simplest, high performance, modular machine made with stock and minimum-machined parts at the lowest possible cost. It is a vertical press, where a mud slurry falls directly from the hopper into the compression chamber. The main cylinder compresses soil and the machine then ejects bricks from the chamber.

The combined mechanical and electrostatic forces compress the brick mixture, which is typically 20-30% clay and 70-80% sand and silt. As particles come closer, mechanical forces lock the particles into place. Electrostatic forces encourage the intermolecular attraction of microscopic (less than four microns) clay particles. Adding a chemical binder, such as cement, binds larger particles of sand and aggregate, further increasing strength.

The machine is designed to run on diesel fuel, but Jinkai envisions eventually converting these machines to run on solar power.

Three.

Our core solution team comprises one full-time staff member, Grace Nyebe (based in Nigeria), and two part-time staff members, Nuhu Yakubu (based in Nigeria) and founder Dr. Emmanuel Gye (based in Canada).

Jinkai was started following a medical outreach trip by Nigerian-Canadian physician Dr. Emmanuel Gye in 2018. The project was launched soon after and a core team has been working on the solution – from concept and design to training and pilot – for six years.

The Jinkai Aid Initiative shares Solve’s core values of optimism, partnership, open innovation, human-centered solutions, and inclusive technology, and we too strive to uphold the principles of DEI and anti-racism in the work we do. 

Jinkai is led by a team with diverse experiences and skills, that shares a commitment to the communities we serve through respect, partnership, inclusion, and open innovation.

With 20 years of experience as a primary care physician, Dr. Emmanuel Gye is passionate about community empowerment and positively impacting the social determinants of health. In addition to his practice as a Bariatric and Lifestyle Medicine Physician, Dr. Gye is a Clinical Assistant Professor with the University of Calgary, secretary/treasurer of the Family Medicine section of the Alberta Medical Association, and a past Chair of the Highland Primary Care Network. He has held various leadership positions, including as a virtual health technology platform entrepreneur.

Grace Nyebe is a political science major, with experience working with vulnerable populations and conducting community assessments to collect high-quality data. Passionate about humanitarian and development projects/programs, she is an experienced Oxfam Rapporteur and has a demonstrated history of working in non-profit organizations and the management industry. Grace provides professional, technical, operational and administrative assistance.

Nuhu Yakubu is an experienced Country Director for Transfer of Appropriate Sustainable Technology and Expertise (TASTE) and has a demonstrated history of work in the civic and social organization industry. With a Bachelor's degree focused in Sociology from Bingham University, he is skilled in corporate social responsibility, capacity development, humanitarian, technical assistance, and project coordination.

Our business model is grounded in empowering displaced persons to rebuild homes and establish communities. We are a nonprofit organization (with Nigerian and Canadian entities), where all income from donations and grants is used to pay staff members and maintain our facilities. 

Our key “customers” – occupants of Jinkai-built houses – pay only sweat labor and the costs for roofing and doors.

Every month, Jinkai trains groups of 10 individuals per community (5 men and 5 women) on how to use the Compressed Earth Brick (CEB) press machines and build their structures. Jinkai provides individuals with the CEB machines, water tanks, and shovels, at no cost. In return, Jinkai requires that the individuals establish a cooperative, with a proper governance structure. These cooperatives may use these resources to find paid work and/or rebuild their community.

Funds from this grant, and others, would enable Jinkai to build a facility to manufacture the CEB press machines that local technical engineering students can then assemble. The estimated cost to build such a facility and equipment is approximately ₦51,000,000, or US$40,000. An additional $60,000 would allow us not only to build the workshop but also accommodation and lecture halls for training; a true center of excellence.

We plan for Jinkai to become financially sustainable through sustained donations and grants. 

Jinkai is partnered with The Great Commission Foundation, which provides donor services, including official charity tax receipts, to financial supporters in Canada.

The Jinkai Initiative Shelter Competition (JISC) in 2020 was sponsored by founder Dr. Emmanuel Gye and other private donors. 

Longer-term, we may be able to rent our equipment and/or contract out a Jinkai affiliated or certified workforce to commercial projects. Already, 10 of the 68 youths trained by Jnkai so far are now involved in the major rebuilding of a hotel using Jinkai’s technology. Others have been engaged to rebuild a destroyed orphanage. Both projects provide long-term, purposeful, paid employment, and will no doubt build awareness for even more Jinkai-inspired corporately financed projects.

We are also in early discussions with the Government of Nigeria to implement property rights, which are not currently codified in rural areas, at a provincial level in conjunction with Jinkai brick buildings. Doing so would further legitimize the project and, most importantly, help to make the house a stable home.