Build a Classroom, Save the Amazon

Thank you all for your generous support!! We are extremely grateful for the response we've received for Build a Classroom, Save the Amazon. Because of past contributions and two very recent generous contributions; one from a US Rotary organization and the second from a husband and wife in Switzerland, we are now able to finish building our classroom! Having met our goal, we will be closing down this fundraising project. Until that time please consider a final contribution to help with supplies and furniture for our NEW CLASSROOM! We will be kicking off two smaller agricultural projects to coincide with the start of the new school year – please watch for this to appear in the next couple of weeks on Global Giving.

Early this year we reported that we had completed the Aquaponics portion of this project. Our students work daily at monitoring, testing and harvesting fish and vegetables that are thriving on our campus. In the fall last year’s students training new students in the operation and maintenance the Aquaponics farm.

Finishing the classroom is going to fill a huge gap on our campus and provide much needed space for our new group of students. Here are some interesting facts about our new classroom:

• 165.7 SQUARE METERS OF NEW CLASSROOM SPACE
• THE WALLS WILL BE 3 METERS HIGH
• THE ROOF IS ANOTHER 5 METERS HIGHER IN THE CENTER.  
• THERE WILL BE TWO THATCHED ROOF CONES.
• THE CLASSROO CONSISTS TWO OCTGONS ADOINING ON ONE OF THE 8 SIDES.
• THERE WILL BE A SLIDING WALL BETWEEN THE TWO OCTOGONS.  THIS WILL GIVE US 2 CLASSROOMS! 
• IT WILL TAKE 800 GUANGOS.  [THIS IS THE KICHWA NAME FOR A GROUP OF 100 LEAVES] SO A TOTAL OF 80,000 LEAVES TO MAKE THE ROOF! 
• EACH LEAF HAS TO BE HAND WOVEN INTO THE ROOF. 

To cut down on costs we are having the students help with the thatched roof weaving. They are all experienced in doing this work at home and allowing them to help in the construction will give them a feeling of ownership and pride for their new classroom. Right now the leaves for the roof are being collected, trucks are bringing in river rock to form the floor, the footings are done and wood is being secured for the framing and roof joists. We will post in progress pictures and the finished classroom pictures in the near future. We just completed the construction of the composting toilets that will service the new classroom. The pictures show how nice this project has turned out too.

Well – we did it – the students are happy, the Yachana Foundation Staff is happy and we hope that you are happy that our campus has the classroom we need and a fully functional Aquaponics farm. Please let us know what you think about our progress and of course if you have any ideas for new classroom projects this fall please send them our way.

Here is link to a great video about our agriculture and permaculture projects at the Training Center. Please share with your friends! 

http://www.amara.org/fr/videos/6CBLO7vtQD7G/info/agriculture-permaculture-by-yachana-lodge-foundation-amazon-ecuador/

Links:

• About our Agriculture and Permaculture Efforts

Since my last update we have had a full house of students with both Yachana Future Builders [boarding] and the weekly Distancia groups. Our aquaponics project is running and in production with Tilapia and vegetables, but more on that later. There are some changes coming for next year’s students and we will need your support for our classroom project to make things happen. We also have a new video that features are students and projects around the training center. Please feel free to share the link with others! Video direct link:  

https://www.dropbox.com/s/riv6scidsh6v9mk/yachana%20movie.mp4?dl=0

Right now our teachers are exposing our Distancia group to new and wonderful things. David taught them about fungus and different types of decomposers in the jungle. Mariana introduced the students to the techniques of making meatloaf. This dish is not often eaten in Ecuador, maybe the start of a new eating craze in the Amazon. Lena did a review lesson of Water, DNA, and Global Warming. These are all topics that our students would never learn about in their traditional classes but and we realize this topics are important to understanding sustainment of the environment and life in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

The aquaponics system is doing well. The fish are growing and seem to always be hungry. The tomatoes have fruits on them! They are still green but look great. The garlic that we planted from the clove directly on the rocks is growing, and the melons are taking off. The lettuce is not doing very well so we are experimenting with their growing set up.

Mariana led the students in planting the living wall in the recently completed science laboratory. We collected plants from the jungle to use for the wall. It is a learning experience, as we will be seeing which plants successfully growing in the non-soil medium, and which ones aren't. We also used the organic fertilizer that David made a few weeks ago out of cow pies. It has a strong smell, but we are hoping the plants love it.

For the Yachana Future Builders it is not all classroom study, they have a few chores to keep our training center running! See the pictures of cleaning the bathrooms and trying to cook lunch when the power has gone out. Cristhian is giving Saul a hair cut (a fairly common occurrence).

The school year in the Ecuadorian education system is coming to an end [all of our students attend traditional classes too]. Students in their junior and senior years begin to wrestle with exams and defenses of their “project”.  The seniors have to present their project to a board of judges to determine if they will graduate or not.  One of our students has chosen our new aquaponics project as his project and because of our very practical, hands-on approach to teaching he is quite well informed on all of the aspects of this impressive project.  We are sure he will impress the judges with his knowledge of aquaponics.

Changes for the next school year! We will soon start the process of selecting candidates for next school year. We have decided to open up the opportunity to students throughout the provinces of Orellana and parts of Napo. We feel that our success with the current local area has been so great it is time to let a broader group become exposed to Yachana!  But to do this we really need that larger classroom. Donations have been slow to come in recently to support this goal. We are pleased that we received enough to enable us to complete the aquaponics project but we are sad that the classroom is still just footers in the ground. Please think about donating again or sharing our needs with others who have the desire and means to see our project complete.