Publisher's Synopsis
Urban renewal and slum rehabilitation have a long history of failure or meager success. Many nations have attempted to address this difficult challenge with very little impact on the lives of slum inhabitants. The United Nations is attempting to solve the problem by convincing industrialized nations to donate large amounts of money to be used on improving some of the physical shortcomings of slums such as providing a safe source of potable water and improving utilities. This effort is important, however, it is only one facet of the problem. Other facets include education, social and health services. This book explores several approaches to solve this problem using incremental steps to train the youth to participate in building new housing and furniture as well as providing the population with employment. The proposed solutions follow a four step approach used in urban planning to find solutions to daunting problems. Organizing the slum population to help themselves, rather than having the government do it for them gives the inhabitants the skill and incentive to maintain their habitat rather than vandalize or neglect it. The author has seen many a well-intended project deteriorate and become as bad as the original it replaced, having worked for the Egyptian government on one of these projects.
