Education Guatemala Project #2402

Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building

by Long Way Home, Inc.

Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building

Project Report | Sep 6, 2019
Green Building, Education, and Community, Oh My! Plus the 2017-18 Annual Report Release

By Katie Larson | Development Director

Bachillerato students during latrine construction

Green Building Update - Academy Success

We held our third Academy this past July, focusing building on a third house on the Peren property. 7 full time and 4 part time students joined us from the US, the UK, Mexico, and Guatemala to build an entire house from the ground up. Peter McIntosh from Natural Building Collective lead the in-class and on-site practical sessions while Matt, Adam, Roberto and Hugo led hands-on construction sessions.

Roberto Peren, our construction team leader, has taken a leap with his family. He has invested in the LWH building process, demonstrating for the Comalapan community that a house made from "trash" can be beautiful as well as produce a positive impact on the local environment. Roberto and the LWH team are on the frontline of making sustainable and resilient housing available in low-resourced and climate-stressed communities. Click here for the overview video.

Education Update - CETC Seniors' Final Projects

Over the course of 10 days, our CETC seniors (7 boys and 5 girls) completed their grade level projects - two dry compost latrines. The two latrines were built for and with two families in the neighboring village of Xiquin Sanaii. The families were identified from the student-led living conditions survey conducted in 2017. 4 Bachillerato teachers alongside 3 of our green builders supervised the builds.

These projects embody purpose-based education, youth led community development, and interdisciplinary teamwork. Students, builders, teachers, and Xiquin community members came together to implement a sustainable solution to a local challenge.

Community Update –

Paraxaj Water Project

A piped water system is now delivering clean water to 1,200 people in Parajax, Guatemala - a neighboring village of Comalapa!

Engineers Without Borders University of Minnesota Chapter partnered with LWH and Parajax to install the piped water system. LWH's five prior project partnerships with EWB Minnesota have delivered piped water to nearly 1,000 families. Click here for the overview video.

Campus Repaving Project

The CETC Parent's Committee has completed three phases of the campus repaving project, using recycled cobblestones from town. Now three key walkways are paved! This will significantly reduce dust, creating a safer environment for kids to breathe and play. Click here for the overview video.

We would like to thank donors, Heidi and Austin Spinella, for their generous support of this campus development project! .

Non-Profit Update

2017 -2018 Annual Report Released!

After much anticipation, here is a review of the work completed by LWH from 2017-2018. We're grateful for the successes and lessons learned from these years. Look out for a 2019 Annual Report release in February 2020! Read the full report here.

LWH Visionaries Documentary

The Visionaries documentary episode "Green Building - A Long Way from Home" is showing on more and more public TV stations across the US! Check out the schedule here and/or check out the full episode in the link below.

If you feel inspired by the work we're doing to generate economic opportuinity and resilient systems in climate-stressed communities, invest with us by becoming a recurring donor.

Romeo and Reese during the July Academy

July Academy graduates

Bachillerato students with their finished latrine

Links:

Permalink

Jun 11, 2019
Green building expands & CETC student wins a prize for presentation on Women's Rights!

By Thomas Hartig | Communications Officer

CETC students wins price

We greatly appreciate your ongoing support of Long Way Home! Your donations help us to continue to carry out our mission to construct self-sufficient schools and houses, primarily serving children and families in the highlands town and surrounding villages of San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala. Read below to see how your support is manifesting into impactful and meaningful action in Comalapa.

March

In our 2^nd Green Building Academy in March, our builders and students from around the world constructed a house using key green building materials - tires, cob, glass bottles, eco-bricks, and bamboo to name a few. This house was designed for a local family and will be ready for move-in by July. Our Academy students loved diving into classroom and applied learning on the subject of green building as well as a month of meaningful intercultural exchange. The month of building concluded with the roof and walls completed and window and door frames installed in the house. It is now ready for electric installations and finishing touches to the inside and outside.

Also in late March, LWH welcomed back the Viv corporate service group. Lead by Centro Educativo Tecnico Chixot students, this group helped to build 18 water tanks for families in need in the mountain village of Xiquin Sanai. This three-day service project was a great success for all. Thank you to Viv, the CETC middle and high school students and their teachers, and our local green building construction team for contributing muscles and minds to addressing the need for clean water storage in Xiquin!

April

In April, we started partnering with FUNDATED, a Guatemalan organization specializing in empowering vulnerable people and communities. The FUNDATED team coached our teachers on how to detect learning challenges for students and provide early psycho-social support for students. The goal is to offer direct help to our students who need it the most.

Another big step forward for campus construction is in progress right now. In April, Long Way Home builders, teachers, and parents collected thousands of cobble stones from the town square and are now using them to pave the walkways in front of classrooms. These cobble stones were made available to the public after the local government decided to repave town roads. This is another perfect example of how we repurpose local materials into our one-of-a-kind campus.

May

This past May, CETC 11^th grade high school student, Joseline Morales, won the title of “Princess of Art” at the Rumial Qa Tinamit Celebration in Comalapa. In front of a big crowd in Comalapa's central park, she spoke about the emancipation of indigenous women and their rights to participate in political and social debates.

June

Finally, our construction of a Health Center for people living in the danger zone of Volcano Fuego in Santa Maria Sibaja is in its final phase and projected to be completed by June 2019. More than 3,000 eco-bricks and 300 tires have been used in this bamboo-structured clinic. The clinic includes two medical service rooms, an administration and entrance lobby, a storage room for medical equipment, and sanitary restrooms. We thank GlobalGiving for the grant to make this project possible.

As 2019 carrys on, please consider supporting our school further as we excitedly continue expansion of the campus, students served, and grades offered. We appreciate your support and always enjoy the opportunity to share our stories with you - the people that help make them possible!

With gratitude for your contributions to our organization, mission, and community,

The Long Way Home Team

CETC students prepare the water tanks

Water tanks for 18 families in Xiquin Sanai

Viv Group and Academy Students

2nd Green Building Academy

2nd Green Building Academy House

Project Health Center in Santa Maria Sibaja

CETC kids phoning

CETC primary class

Reutilizing cobble stone to pave our school

Links:

Permalink

Mar 4, 2019
School's Back In, for Everybody!

By Lauren Wang | Business Development Strategist

We would like to thank our special donors again who make the development of our Green Built school and education for our students possible. We have an update of your impact since "summer" break ended in min-January, and our students have returned for a new school year. Our school is growing, and we are excited to share this culmination of efforts with you.

We now offer another high school grade. We are thrilled to be continuing and close to completing our offerings of secondary education. This is becoming increasingly important as our lower grade students are moving up, and we hope to provide support all the way to university.

We have added 10 new teachers equipped to support our growing student body. These teachers are primarily for our high school grades, as our high school programming is expanding. It has been wonderful to see so many new faces a part of our community!

We have just started our 2nd Green Building Academy on the 1st of March, with 5 eager and motivated participants joining us for the month of the course. We are excited to get going on building a new sustainable home from the ground up, starting with the foundations, whilst also working on a halfway finished LWH green building house next door. Our participants will therefore get a chance to practically work on many different stages of green building, from start to finish. We are hoping to build a community of green builders that spread these urgent values and teachings around the world.

In a small community called "Santa Maria Sibaja" in the valley of the Fuego Volcano, we are now constructing a Health Center for the community. In this disaster relief effort we are partnering with REKKO, who provide medical services, and the Ministry of Health to bring healthcare to more than 105 families. The center is built out of bamboo, trash-bottles and rammed earth tires. Locals are learning how to use local materials and repurpose their own trash. We are excited to have this new Health Center by the end of March.

Thank you for your generous support that allows our students to learn how to tackle issues in their communities, whilst allowing families to benefit from their growth. We will be providing updates on other developments in our school, as well as the projects and initiatives our students are able to produce for the community. Please consider supporting our school further throughout this 2019 year as we are excited to continue this expansion. We appreciate your support and always enjoy the opportunity to share our stories with you, the people that make them possible.

Permalink

‹ 1 ... 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 21 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.