This was a community-based effort at constructing an educational proposal orientated towards self-empowerment aimed at improving the target population's sanitary, housing and living conditions through cooperative learning.A constructivist approach was adopted based on a programme called "Habitat community manger". The project involved working with fifteen families living in the Mochuelo Bajo barrio in Ciudad Bolívar in Bogotá, Colombia, for identifying the most relevant sanitary aspects for improving their homes and proposing a methodology and organisation for an educational proposal.Twenty-one poor housing-related epidemiological indicators were identified which formed the basis for defining specific problems and establishing a methodology for designing an educational proposal.The course which emerged from the cooperative learning experience was designed to promote the community's skills and education regarding health aimed at improving households' living conditions and ensuring a healthy environment which would allow them to develop an immediate habitat ensuring their own welfare and dignity.