The Dooiy app hopes to link impoverished communities with life-changing DIY solutions, such as homemade fire extinguishers. [Picture: BusinessLIVE/Dooiy]
In the early hours of an icy winter night in South Africa’s capital city of Pretoria, a community of shack dwellers stood in horror. Right before their eyes, three of their own screamed helplessly as their shack was razed to the ground, the family trapped inside.
Residents at the Transit Camp informal settlement, Mamelodi East, were awoken by the urgent pleas of their neighbours. They ran around, helplessly, as they tried to douse the fire with water buckets. When the emergency services arrived, three lives had already been lost, including those of two children.
Though extremely painful to hear, this was far from an isolated incident. Residents of informal settlements, deprived of dignified shelter all their lives, face the very real threat of fires daily. How ineffective does the state have to be, that lives are lost in fire after fire, yet nothing changes?
The crowded conditions in informal settlements dramatically increase the chances of fires ripping through them. Inaccessible roads make it harder for emergency services to arrive soon enough. Sanitation is poor, so residents have to run great distances to fetch water.
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Difference
A German couple, Marlene Lerch and Christian Fuss, visited South Africa in 2019. While touring the country, they confronted the deep inequality, poverty and unemployment that is rife in many areas. Some four years later, they launched Dooiy.
So what has the app of a German couple got to do with shack fires in South Africa? Well, it has the potential to make a big difference in the lives of millions. With all the difficulties of accessing DIY information in mind, Dooiy connects users with expert knowledge from around the world.
It is true that simple solutions can be life-changing, but Dooiy wants to take it a step farther: to make them accessible for everyone. With the help of its international community, the app provides step-by-step guides to people looking for solutions to everyday challenges.
“We connect people with great ideas and solutions that can make their lives better, especially people in under-served communities,” says Patrick Mashegwana, Dooiy’s communications manager.
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Accessibility
According to Dooiy, around half-a-million people gain access to the internet each day. There is an abundance of websites offering DIY solutions, but there is a problem. Just 1% of those solutions are relevant to people who live without basic infrastructure like electricity and sanitation services.
“I grew up in a township [and] used to live there. It’s so tough,” continues Mashegwana. “There really are a lot of challenges there. You don’t have access to information, you don’t have access to a lot of resources.” This makes access to information quite difficult for those who really need it.
That is what makes Dooiy a game-changer. The open-source web and mobile app prioritises accessibility over almost everything else. It consumes low energy and data while enabling people and organisations to share cost-effective DIY and life hacks.
“It bridges the gap between information from around the world – with some of the greatest minds, universities and organisations – and provides the link for the people in under-served communities to have that information, he said.
Since being launched in February 2023, Dooiy has already been a massive success in South Africa. Hack Your Shack, the Berlin NPO under which it was founded, already hopes to expand to other parts of Africa next year.
They also plan to one day “allow offline use, support low-literate users and provide community translations in many languages”.
“Some people are beginning to use the ideas that are on the platform,” says Mashegwana. He refers to the community of Solly’s Town informal settlement, near Cape Town, that has zealously implemented the fire-extinguisher hack.
With just basic tools and ingredients like a 2l cooldrink bottle, some vinegar, dishwashing liquid and bicarb, as well as a thin plastic bag, they were able to make their own fire extinguishers.
The idea is that solutions as simple as these can make huge differences in people’s lives, sustainably. There are nearly 50 DIY hacks on dooiy.org, ranging from fire extinguishers to washing machines and solar lights. Hopefully, more than making life easier, accessible knowledge can help prevent similar tragedies in the future.
