We have just started a crowdfunding in order to finance the construction of our community center. We would appreciate your support! Find the crowdfunding here
–SUMMARY–
The Guatemalan society is characterized by structural economic and social inequalities. This leads to that basic community services, such as education and health care, do not reach large parts of the society. The Swedish-Guatemalan NGO, ECOespiral, wants to improve this situation in a rural community in Tecpán, Guatemala, by initiating the construction of an integrated, self-sustained Community Center. The center will serve as an after-school area for educational and preventive-health purposes, as well as a safe-place for Guatemalan youths.
As part of the center, we will construct a bamboo dome, an ecological building that will be used as a workshop area for our educational programs and extracurricular activities. We will also integrate a library, including a space where the kids can study. Next to the dome, we will construct a contemplation area for meditation, educational trails and a play-ground area.
We are also creating a preventive-health center, focusing on kids’ health targeting malnutrition. We will develop this project with the support from nutritionists, students and interns from Guatemalan universities. The garden of the center is designed as an edible forest, a highly-productive space that imitates a natural forest ecosystem, to produce high-quality food whilst, among many other things, contributing to the mitigation of climate change, promotion of water restoration and conservation.
–DETAILED DESCRIPTION–
What is the problem?
The Guatemalan society is characterized by structural economic and social inequalities. Public institutions are underfunded and weak. This leads to that basic community services, such as education and health care, do not reach large parts of the society. The rural population is particularly vulnerable and has poorer access to these necessities.
How would we like to solve the problem?
To continue and develop this work, ECOespiral has initiated the construction of an integrated, self-sustained Community Center in Tecpán, Guatemala. The idea is that this will be an inter-cultural space that promotes a holistic life-style, based on a Culture of Peace in Guatemala, as one of the main tools to create positive changes towards the social, economic and environmental crisis that we face in Guatemala and the rest of the planet.
The community center will be a safe-place for Guatemalan youths, to learn, teach, share and co-create the world they want to live in. As part of the center, we will construct a bamboo dome, an ecological building that will be used as a workshop area for our educational programs and extracurricular activities, such as yoga and meditation lessons. We will also integrate a library, including a space where kids can study, as many of them don’t have a space to study after school. It will additionally include a contemplation area for meditation, educational trails and an ecological play-ground area.
We are also creating a preventive-health center, focused on kids health targeting malnutrition. In this space, we will integrate the use of medicine plants and native super-foods to strengthen kids’ health and teach them natural, low-cost, and efficient recipes to live a healthier life. We will develop this project with the support from nutritionists, students and interns from Universidad San Carlos de Guatemala and Universidad Rafael Landivar, which are national universities in Guatemala.
We have also designed an edible forest garden, a highly-productive space that imitates a natural forest ecosystem. This design will produce high qualitative food to support the nutrition of local families, whilst contributing to mitigate climate change, promote water conservation, prevent erosion, restore the soil´s natural-biota, create a shelter for pollinator species, whilst supporting the local economy and promoting the education of local leaders and youths.
As part of this integrated system, we will create: a Recycling Collection-Center (as an alternative to manage the solid-waste in the community), Bio-input Area (organic compost and pest control), Chicken Area (egg production, compost, plague control, amongst other benefits), an Hydroponic-System (fish and veggies production), ecological toilets (compost production), a productive pond (promotes diversity inside the system and works as a water-storage system during dry season) and an automated irrigation system.
What are we searching funding for?
Until now, we have constructed a bamboo building that will serve as the preventive-health center. We have additionally designed the food-forest system described above, which includes sowing fruit trees, medicinal plants and vertical and horizontal species. We have also set up a natural water-retention system and a rain-water harvest system. However, we are still missing some financing to finalize and sustain the following:
* The ecological building that will be used as a workshop area
* The construction of a Library
* Salaries for the construction workers and gardener
* Money to sustain the center up until we are able to obtain profits/incomes from the system by selling eggs, fruits, organic compost, fish, veggies, etc.
* The construction of the Recycling Collection-Center
* The construction of the Bio-input Area
* The construction of the Chicken Area
* The construction of the ecological toilets (compost production)
* The construction of the productive pond
* The construction of the trails
* The construction of the ecological playground area
