It wasn’t enough that Lawrence’s Habitat for Humanity sent $4,000 to an African building project. Members wanted to throw in some elbow grease, too.

Two representatives from Lawrence are in Africa this week helping build houses for poor residents of South Africa and Mozambique.

“We just wanted to see where our money was going and how we could help out in the future,” said Ken Ratzlaff, who traveled to Africa with Jerry Feese.

Ratzlaff is director of the instrumental design laboratory at Kansas University and coordinates church projects for Lawrence Habitat. Feese works for the U.S. Geological Survey in Lawrence and is secretary of Lawrence Habitat’s board of directors.

The two men spent last week at the Jimmy Carter Work Project site in Durban, South Africa, where 4,000 about 1,400 of them international volunteers built 100 homes for poor residents.

During a phone interview from a South African wildlife reserve, Ratzlaff said he could see the firsthand effects of apartheid in the poverty of black South Africans.

“There’s a huge need,” he said. “Habitat is one way they can help serve that need. It’s one part of the overall picture for them. We saw some appalling shanty-towns just driving in.”

This week they have been on Inhaca, an island of about 5,000 people in Mozambique. Lawrence Habitat played host to the chairwoman of Habitat for Humanity Mozambique last fall, and officials decided to sponsor construction in that country.

Ratzlaff said five houses were under way in Mozambique. Because tools are rare, he and Feese gave their tools to the workers there.

The houses in South Africa and Mozambique are made from concrete blocks with drywall. No running water or electricity is available at the Mozambique site.

Ratzlaff and Feese plan to return next week to Kansas.

Like in the United States, future homeowners must work alongside volunteers and are given low-interest loans.

Andre Bollaert, executive director of Lawrence Habitat, said the outreach was a vital part of the group’s mission. U.S. Habitat groups send 10 percent of their donations to international projects.

Because it costs about $2,000 on average to build a house overseas and $55,000 to $60,000 here, Lawrence’s group has helped sponsor about 45 houses in other countries about the same number it has built in Lawrence.

“Obviously, there’s a lot more need for simple, decent housing in other parts of the world than here,” Bollaert said. “And they bring back new energy from these trips.”