AUTHOR: Nancy TITLE: El Salvador Update DATE: 2/05/2009 06:41:00 AM ----- BODY:
Hi all,

I'm at the airport in San Salvador and thought I'd bring you up to date while I wait. Yesterday was hectic and full of good news. We started at the factory with a panic search for more metal for comales. Gustavo had gone to pick some up and found the price had DOUBLED in a week! He then set about calling San Salvador for more, and there the price was even higher. Steel importers had bought a lot in anticipation of the price stabilizing at a high price and now that imported steel costs less they don't want to lose money on what they bought in advance! Gustavo bought enough to get him through the next few orders, but it was a stressful beginning to the day.

We took off for Santa Ana to meet with the Rotarians about the status of their two grants with Southtowne and Irvine Spectrum. We met Ernesto Chi and his friend Sarah who will be, in the future, our contact person for the stove grants. They indicated that they had sent in their share of money for our grant and all was well. They had been promised $1,000 from CESSA, the local cement company, for the Irvine grant but that donation was now in jeopardy as their contact at CESSA was outspoken in his support of the opposition party in the coming election and for this was fired. They hope to have space for this grant, but at the moment it is in flux.

After the Santa Ana meeting we picked up Ken in San Salvador and met with the CPA from Deloitte who gave us a complete copy, in English, of the tax laws along with an estimate of the cost of the Ecocina. With the inclusion of 13% mandatory tax, plus 1.5% of another tax, plus Social Security, plus "renta" and a bit extra for expected price fluctuations, we have to raise the price of the stove to $50.00.

We asked about tax-exemption and whether the various NGOs have it. He said that some do and some don't depending upon which political party was in power and the connections each group had with the ruling party. Interesting, eh? He advised us to get no-profit status in El Salvador as soon as possible as this could assist us in many ways. Also, he thought a good idea was to give 5% of our "profit" to each community to use for social programs. This is money we would otherwise be giving to the government and it would be better to distribute it. It made sense to us, and he will help with it.

In addition, he mentioned that they do the work for CESSA and he would talk to the president of the company about the donation needed for Santa Ana's grant. Our CPA there likes our program and had been to a village where people were using and loving the stoves. He has also been to the factory and has liked what he has seen, so we're feeling good about our relationship with him.

The next stop was to the government office to register the Ecocina. All is well there and after publication of the legal documents the stove should be "official" as Ecocina. This is expected to be in two weeks' time.

Following the government office visit, we drove to Santa Tecla Rotary Club for a quick visit. They were on fire (no pun intended) about the project. They had purchased 40 stoves with their own personal money and had distributed them as a pilot project. People were delighted with the stoves and they recounted the story of one woman who put the stove on her head and drove off on a bicycle! Unfortunately, nobody got a photo.

Anyway, they are very anxious to start a new Rotary grant as soon as possible and want to get a donation from MASECA, the company that makes masa for tortillas, to support the grant. All we need is a US Rotary Club to sponsor it! Does anyone have a contact that would help?

We left Santa Tecla Rotary at about 6pm and Don and I went to Hotel Alamo for supper and to pack. Don is going to Choluteca Rotary today after he and Gustavo drop Ken at the bus station to go to Tehutla. It's an 8 hour drive so my 7 1/2 hour layover in Los Angeles doesn't seem so bad after all.

We've had more contact with Guatemala Sur Rotary and Juan Carlos says they will have space for another grant in about two weeks, so let's hope we can keep all of the Rotarians happy, the people in the villages happy, and all of our funders knowing how much success we have had here. If this project continues to explode we really DO have a chance to change a country :-)

Nancy

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