CECAM Donates Stove to Landslide Victims in La Paz
In early June, Sustainable Bolivia’s partner organisation CECAM donated a new prototype of a lage-scale efficient wood-burning stove to the victims of what has been called the worst landslide in recent Bolivian history. More than 1300 families in the Pampahasi area of La Paz lost their homes and belongings in the disaster. The stove is a prototype of new type of institutional wood stove funded by Sustainable Bolivia volunteers and is now being used to cook food and boil water for more than seven families in the area.
The donation to the zone is the first phase of a long-term project to provide the many victims in the area with solar stoves and a source of income. To fund this project, CECAM is raising funds online until the 18th of June.
You can read more about the project and donate here:
World Recycling Day 2011
Since it is World Recycling Day, we would like to share a project Sustainable Bolivia volunteers recently completed for one of our partner organizations —recycling bins made out of plastic bottles. Volunteer Robyn Lambert will donate the bins to a local school through her volunteer organization, PAAC; these will be their first recycling bins. The school aims to become a recycling center for the neighboring community. We hope to demonstrate that you can make recycling bins from available materials, rather than having to buy already made containers.
Congratulations to Robyn and her team of Sustainable Bolivia colleagues who helped her to design a prototype recycled recycling bin!
Scholarship Recipients Discuss their Studies [VIDEO]
We are pleased to share the work of our current film intern, Molly Robbins in the following brief video highlighting a few of our Sustainable Bolivia Scholarship Recipients. Hear their stories and dreams as they study for a better future for themselves and their communities.
Please consider a donation to our Scholarship Fundraiser by clicking on the Chip In button below. Thank you!
Sustainable Bolivia Scholarship Fundraiser
One of the best ways for Sustainable Bolivia to facilitate a sustainable and just future in Cochabamba is investment in human capacity: education, opening opportunities, and creating space for collaboration. Not only do we provide support and experience to our partner organizations through volunteer projects, we seek to support the potential of local youth through individual scholarships for higher education. Today we are asking for your donation to support eight youth recipients of the SB Scholarship program. We have set an ambitious goal to raise $3,000 from individual donations during the month of April. During April, Sustainable Bolivia will match every dollar of your donation up to a total of $3,000 for a grand total of at least $6,000 to be dedicated towards student scholarships.
Many of the young people that Sustainable Bolivia serves through our partner organizations are unable to receive a higher education degree as it is financially unattainable. Financial aid and scholarships are extremely limited in Bolivia, thus many students never have the opportunity to realize their full academic and professional potential. This situation leads to a cycle of poverty where individuals from lower economic backgrounds are never able to attend university and must accept lower paying jobs. Many of their peers in similar social and economic situations live on the streets or become involved with drugs. The SB Scholarship program seeks an alternative path to poverty by rewarding students who are willing to overcome their tough circumstances to better themselves and their community.
100% of your tax-deductible donation goes directly to a scholarship recipient to cover school fees, books, and school supplies, and transportation. In addition to covering costs of studying, SB scholarship recipients have the support of our organization to encourage their success: each student has monthly check-ins in our office and is required to maintain a minimum grade level every semester. Of their own initiative, scholarship recipients have started to meet together at the SB office to encourage each other to succeed, to practice public speaking, and to provide each other with peer support.
It is a privilege for us to work with these young people, and I encourage you to read about their individual stories here. It's also important for them to know that their opportunity to study comes from many past volunteers like you, who believe in their potential to better themselves and their communities.
Can you make a donation of $15 or more to support these students? Please help us to reach our goal by clicking on the application above.
We'll also include a list of volunteer-donors in our next SB newsletter!
Sustainable Living in Cochabamba – Compost Update
The composting systems for the Sustainable Bolivia volunteer houses seem to be working, although I need to drill holes in a few more buckets because we have more food scraps than I realized. I’m looking for milk crates for the final composting stage, though I might use the spare chicken wire I found in the back yard. The compost system works like this: one bucket for fresh scraps until it’s about 2/3 full. Then I put this one to the side for several weeks while we fill an empty bucket with new scraps. Once the second bucket is full, the contents of the first bucket are ready to be put in a milk crate or chicken wire container. I prefer the milk crate option because it allows the most access to air and it’s more durable than chicken wire.
Right now we’re only composting raw veggie and fruit scraps (no meat, dairy, grains, or cooked food) to keep things simple and avoid critters. I check on the compost in each of the houses about once a week to make sure everything is on track. The main house composting system seems to going fine. Our shared dinners on weeknights include about 20 people per night, and produce a fair amount of veggie scraps, so combined with our yard waste, we’re getting quite a bit of compost for the garden – maybe we should start sharing with the neighbors!
Up next in Sustainable Living: A month without plastic?