AUTHOR: Nancy TITLE: Central America - June 2009 by Don Steely DATE: 6/11/2009 04:09:00 PM ----- BODY:
It’s been a hectic two weeks so far in Central America.

In Honduras, we have all of papers for the Southtowne-Choluteca grant ready to submit to Rotary International, thanks to hard work by Susie in Eugene.

In Guatemala, Marco Tulio’s factory is gearing up for production. Paperwork is just getting finished so that the Rotary grant between Irvine Spectrum and Guatemala Sur can be submitted. Gustavo did two demonstrations in nearby communities. A total of 50 people attended and there were orders for 100 stoves!! More molds arrived from the Sonsonate factory. It appears that the November StoveTeam trip will be to Guatemala again and we will be expanding the factory buildings and making work tables. Gustavo will return to Guatemala at the end of the month and help Marco with demonstrations. We were also able to give Marco some very good contacts with NGOs and the government.

In El Salvador, the Southtowne-Santa Ana grant has started. Factory improvements are being made and production is gearing up. The new First Lady is very interested in helping women, and one way is through Ecocinas. Gustavo will have 20 or more demonstrations with new ministers in the government. In addition, the new President has pledged to build 20,000 low income homes and we hope to be able to put an Ecocina in each one through a program that allows communities to help build the stoves. And over the next two months, Ecocina will be on local TV. Gustavo has arranged to work with Aciete, a cooking oil company. They advertise on TV that each day of the week they will visit a community and give out a free package of cooking oil to everyone who has 3 empty ones. In most places, they will have 100 or so people turn out to get their free oil. At the same time, there will be an Ecocina demonstration and a drawing for a free stove. Of course smaller demonstrations continue to go on all the time, as well as training for Peace Corps volunteers.

In Nicaragua, we may have a chance to get started. There will be several meetings this weekend and next week with a ceramics factory, an NGO and Rotary members. A Rotarian that attend one of the demonstrations in Guatemala has said his club would be willing to sponsor a grant in Nicaragua. All of this because a couple that lives in Managua happened onto the StoveTeam website and met up with Nancy in Eugene.

Labels: , , ,

----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Anonymous DATE:Friday, June 12, 2009 2:49:00 PM very cool. ----- --------