JUST DOOIY IT YOURSELF
The groundbreaking tech platform allows people from around the world to share DIY ideas without the need for high-speed internet connections, deep pockets or easy access to hardware stores
“Last year, my house was about to catch fire because of my gas stove,” says Nontobeko Alicia Sonjica, a resident of Solly’s Town informal settlement in the vicinity of Strand, near Cape Town. “Then I used that fire extinguisher and it really worked. I am very grateful for what that fire extinguisher did for me.”
In March 2022, Sonjica had attended a workshop where she learnt how to make a fire extinguisher using only a 2l cooldrink bottle, some vinegar, dishwashing liquid and bicarb, and a thin plastic bag.
The workshop was arranged by Hack Your Shack, a nonprofit organisation (NPO) founded by Marlene Lerch, a German urban planner with extensive experience in bottom-up, participatory processes.
A few days before the workshop a fire had swept through Solly’s Town, razing 250 shacks and leaving many of Sonjica’s neighbours homeless.
Since then, Lerch and her software engineer husband Christian Fuss have launched dooiy, a low-data, low-energy, open-source web and mobile app that allows people and organisations from all over the world to share DIY and life hacks that don’t require expensive tools or materials.
The project won an innovation prize in Germany and is partly funded by the German government.
The seed was sown in 2019, when Lerch and Fuss spent a year in South Africa. “I met a lot of changemakers in the townships and beyond,” says Lerch. “I soon realised that it’s really hard to find applicable DIY solutions on the internet ... The DIY universe is huge, but there was basically nothing for people who live without electricity, sanitation facilities or other basic infrastructure.”
In 2021 Lerch and Fuss founded Hack Your Shack, which empowers people to better their lives through DIY. The dooiy app is the next iteration of this dream; the developers hope the techpowered vector will reach 2-billion people worldwide.
“Half a million people gain access to the internet every day,” Lerch tells the FM. “We want to make sure they find something really useful when they get there.”
The app was launched in February with 45 hacks. Popular ones include Sonjica’s Coke bottle fire extinguisher, a bucket washing machine that has the potential to transform the lives of millions of women, and a solar bottle bulb that brings light into windowless shacks and doesn’t cost a cent to run.
It’s not just about DIY. There are also easy-to-follow instructions for building a vertical garden, assembling a “rape response” kit, and starting a business.
While some of the hacks were created by dooiy, most are from partner organisations around the world. The fire extinguisher, for example, was developed in 2015 by University of Cape Town engineering students Desania Govender and Yandisa Sojola; but it had largely been forgotten.
And the solar bottle bulb is the brainchild of the Liter of Light movement.
“All hacks are open source, and anyone can add a hack to the platform,” says Lerch. “It’s also 100% free to use, and anyone with an internet connection can benefit from the hacks.”
On that note, Fuss has gone to great effort to ensure that both the website and app use hardly any data while still looking professional. The entire fire extinguisher guide, for example, uses 250KB of data — about 70 times less than a regular website containing similar content.
Since launching, dooiy has run fire extinguisher workshops in 12 townships in the Western Cape, with 800 participants taking their own fire extinguishers home afterwards.
The company has also run a train-thetrainer workshop with different departments of the City of Cape Town on how to use dooiy and how to organise fire extinguisher workshops.
As a result, the city has incorporated dooiy into the programme of its Smart Living education centre, and is starting to teach young people to make fire extinguishers.
What’s more, dooiy has built a demo shack that showcases about a dozen of its hacks in action. This is based at partner
organisation Score’s Mbekweni Community Sports Centre, outside Wellington. Score is an NPO that changes lives through sport.
“The demo shack is so important because you can show the hacks in action,” says Stefan Howells, one of the directors at Score. “The fire extinguisher workshop drew everyone in. But then they walked through the demo shack and took in all the details.”
One of these “details” is a natural air conditioning system made out of plastic bottles that was developed in Bangladesh. Another is an innovative rat trap made from two pencils and a plastic bottle.
Howells, who’s been working for Score since 1991, says he has never come across a platform “that brings it all together like this app. I do know some of the organisations that have contributed, and they’re all experts in their sectors,” he says.
KwaZulu-Natal NGO Singakwenza, for example, specialises in making educational toys from items that would normally be thrown away. “Having access to all these great ideas in one place is unique,” Howells says. “And the app encourages people to share.”
While dooiy is aimed at underprivileged communities, Howells believes “a lot of the stuff could be applicable to all levels of society”.
And the app is already being used in interesting ways. Howells gives the example of a Score football player “who saw an opportunity to make an income ... [by making] fire extinguishers and [selling] them”.
He says: “People will see the app in different ways. And as it gains users it could become something really big and important.”
Another person who was instantly impressed by dooiy is Shack, lead singer of local music group Tinta Tribe. The band was invited to perform at dooiy’s launch and, after the show, Shack got chatting to Lerch.
When he’s not making music, Shack works as a community activist in Siqalo informal settlement in Philippi, Cape Town.
“There’s a huge need for fire extinguishers where I live,” he says. “So I spoke to the community leaders and set everything up. We settled on a date and the people came through ... What a blast! Close to 100 people went home with fire extinguishers.”
Shack touches on what is probably the biggest challenge facing Lerch and the team at dooiy. “In communities where people are struggling, it’s quite difficult to introduce an app. People are on their phones all the time, but they don’t always have data,” he says. This is
Marlene Lerch why it’s important to “lay the groundwork ... The more people who experience a workshop the more chance it has ... You know how word of mouth works.”
Luckily the app doesn’t have to reach every member of the community to be successful. It can also work if it reaches a community leader, teacher or NGO. “I’m a leader in my community,” says Shack. “When I say something is a great idea, they listen.”
Tinta Tribe has even written a song about dooiy now a staple on its playlist. “The people love it,” he says. “And we always explain a bit about the app before we sing it.”
Howells has noticed a similar dynamic in Mbekweni. “People who do have access to data use it to gain access to the app and then spread the word to people who don’t,” he says.
“It’s really important that it’s geared to young people”, he adds, as it empowers the youth to feel they are part of the solution.
Score runs three sports centres in the Western Cape, says Howells, and it will be using the platform to spread the word about dooiy.
“We already have workshops with parents, aimed at helping them to engage with their children and their educational journeys. And we see the possibility of adding some of our materials to the app. We also do a lot of home visits, so we can see what the needs are. We can refer people to the app, or hold workshops if there’s a common need.”
Lerch is overwhelmed by the progress dooiy has made. But she’s also well aware that much still needs to be done to make it a global game-changer. For now, she says, the focus is on “building the userbase and extending the partner network to make it a source that people know”.
As this network grows, so will the number of hacks and the geographic reach of the platform.
Another major goal is to make the hacks available in languages other than English. That comes down to capacity. “The aim is to have as many languages as possible,” says Lerch, “but we are quite a small team.”
Being a purely open-source platform, the solution to all of these problems is one and the same: Get involved!
“We want more users, more hacks, more partners, more donors, more ambassadors,” she says. “Everyone can bring something to the table. Whether it’s helping to translate hacks into your own language, or simply spreading the word about dooiy.”
As the chorus of Tinta Tribe’s song goes:
The DIY universe is huge, but there was basically nothing for people who live without electricity, sanitation facilities or other basic infrastructure