DOOIY DOES IT FOR THE COMMUNITIES
- dooiy is a self-empowerment platform that seeks to help people in underserved communities to do it for themselves with simple solutions is doing wonders in Western Cape. Picture Credit dooiy
By Thulane Madalane
Cape Town: A German based Non-profit organization called dooiy has created a self-help online platform called dooiy, dooiy is a website based Do It Yourself ( DIY) platform, which is a brainchild of Co-Founder Marlene Lerch. Marlene and her team invested time and resources in researching the best modalities for their platform before it was launched. The platform has lower data consumption and this would bring relief to undeserved communities from developing countries and can’t afford buying domestic utensils like industrial fire extinguishers, washing machines and the ever rising costs of food.
The platform has been existing for 18 months before it was officially launched on the 04 February 2023 in Cape Town South Africa , “We officially launched dooiy at i-Afrikayam by hosting a workshop, showcased a shack with all DIY solutions and we had a party which was attended by 150 people, who were given thorough training on our user-friendly platform”, said Marlene.The platform provides solutions on how to make a foam fire extinguisher, rat traps and a bucket washing machine that requires buckets and a plunger.
“Furthermore we organized another workshop for a group of 500 people and I am happy to announce that our platform has about 1000 users in South Africa alone, our vision is to scale this platform worldwide which is achievable since we are building a strong online presence.” added Marlene.
The organization’s has made strategic partnerships in the Western Cape with Non-governmental organizations such as Viva Foundation which promotes food security and an advocacy group against Gender Based Violence, Singakwenza a KwaZulu-Natal based organization which manufacturers skipping ropes, Abalimi Besekhaya which promotes small scale urban farming and SCORE, a sporting NGO which operates in South Africa and Namibia, with two sports centers in Western Cape. dooiy plans to use one of the SCORE sports facilities for demonstrating some of its programs for the benefit of communities in nearby settlements such as Nomzamo, Nyanga, Langa, Khayelitsha, Phillipe and others.
The organization has a solid sustainable plan for the platform through working with solutions oriented partners that will use the platform to bring more solutions to the users. ” We are big on partnerships and knowledge sharing to grow the platform to other places, our partners will form the core of our sustainability plan. For example, in KwaZulu-Natal we have partnered with an organization called Singakwenza which will teach our users how to make skipping ropes and Viva Foundation which runs food security initiatives. We also work with universities for knowledge sharing” concluded Marlene.
The organization has made a great impact to communities around Cape Town and majority of its beneficiaries are women, who have to put that brave face daily in making sure that their families are taken care of with limited resources. One of the women who couldn’t hide her excitement its Sally from Nomzamo who has been empowered with a skill of making a washing machine using buckets and a plunger, “We started making bucket washing machines in ourselves and really makes washing so much easier.” She said. To learn more about dooiy you can visit www.dooiy.org and all the other hacks they have. With this initiative, people in underserved communities will have access to easy solutions that they can apply themselves.
For further inquiries please contact:
Patrick M
Communications Manager
What’s app: +49 173 8674 183.
patrick@hackyourshack.org
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