Dispatches from the Field & Project Summaries
Project Summary: Potters for Peace, Nicaragua
June 4, 2010
Pottery may seem like an unlikely vehicle for sustainable development, but through the efforts of Potters for Peace (PFP), thousands of people in Nicaragua and beyond now have the possibility of a better life.
Founded in 1986 as a demonstration of solidarity with the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, Potters for Peace sees itself as a social justice organization. Its original goal was to help Nicaraguan women potters develop their products and marketing in order to improve the lives of their families. After Hurricane Mitch devastated Nicaragua in 1998, PFP developed a second phase of operations: producing a ceramic water filter to address the desperate shortage of clean drinking water. The filter is both quick and inexpensive to produce, providing an affordable water purification system to Nicaraguans of all economic levels.
Produced in a factory on the outskirts of Managua, PFP filters are made from porous clay with a coating of silver. The first step in the process is to mix finely milled clay with sawdust and water, and then press the mixture into a mold. After drying, the filter is fired in a kiln, which burns away the sawdust, leaving miniscule pores for the water to flow through. Next, the filters are soaked in water and tested for flow rate. The final step is to apply a thin coating of silver to kill any bacteria that get through the pores in the filter itself. To use the filters, consumers simply place them inside five-gallon (seven-liter) plastic buckets, which are cheap and easy to buy worldwide.
PFP filters remove 99.98 percent of bacteria, parasites, and turbidity, making them extremely effective in providing potable water at the household level. In fact, the simple and economical design has earned praise from both the U.S. Center for Disease Control and the United Nations. In keeping with PFP’s mission of bringing clean drinking water to as many people as possible, the entire process is open-source technology, available on the organization’s website.
Although PFP no longer operates filter-making facilities directly, the organization continues to provide training in order to enable others to establish factories around the world. Since the beginning of the filter project PFP has facilitated the establishment of 33 filter-making facilities in 25 countries (as of March 2010).
In the artisan pottery program, PFP provides technical and marketing assistance and facilitates interchanges that help potters learn from each other and broaden their perspective in order to further develop their work. One of the organizations that PFP supports is the Ducuale Grande women’s pottery cooperative in northern Nicaragua. The group was established in 1990 in a community with a tradition of working with clay that has been passed down for generations. The members of the cooperative joined together in an effort to improve their pottery techniques and better their lives. They found an outside teacher who taught them a technique that involves painting designs in mud on unfired ceramics and then firing the items with the mud still on them. After the pieces are removed from the kiln and allowed to cool, the mud is washed off, leaving patterns in lighter colors on the reddish-brown clay. Although the technique originated in Peru, the women of Ducuale Grande have made it their own by adapting it their own traditions and creating new designs.
The cooperative has had some stunning success. In the mid-1990s Pier 1 Imports placed an order for more than 18,000 pieces with the Ducuale Grande group. With six months to produce the pieces, the group contracted with 60 other potters and organized in a very professional manner, and succeeded in meeting the deadline. The group now sells its pottery throughout Nicaragua and overseas. Despite these accomplishments, however, the group is struggling with a number of issues, including facilities, marketing, and a steep drop in sales as a result of the global economic problems. PFP continues to work with the cooperative to help the women continue to develop their skills and improve their marketing efforts.
At the same time Potters for Peace is still reeling after its own loss. For 20 years, beginning in the late ’80s, the heart and soul of the organization was Ron Rivera, a potter and humanitarian dedicated to making a difference in the lives of the world’s poor. Sadly, Rivera died in late 2008 after contracting a particularly virulent form of malaria while setting up a filter factory in Nigeria.
Fortunately, PFP’s work did not cease with Rivera’s death. Instead, Robert and Beverly Pillers, an American couple with a long association with Potters for Peace, have taken over the running of the organization. Robert serves as Nicaragua Country Director while Beverly is chairperson of PFP’s board of directors. The Pillers live full-time in Nicaragua and are committed to continuing Rivera’s work.
Project Summary: AsoFenix, Nicaragua
June 4, 2010
In the developed world, clean water and electricity are things most people take for granted, but in countries like Nicaragua, such basic necessities are by no means a guarantee. For communities such as Candelaria and Malacatoya, located in Boaco province northeast of Managua, safe drinking water and household electricity were out of reach until the arrival of AsoFenix, a nonprofit organization that provides renewable energy projects to improve the lives of rural Nicaraguans.
The organization’s director, Jaime Muñoz, founded AsoFenix (short for Asociación Fenix) in 2001 after seeing a need to apply academic studies on renewable energy to solving concrete problems in the Nicaraguan countryside. The organization focuses on the provision of water – both for human consumption and for irrigation – and electricity to rural communities in central Nicaragua that would otherwise have to wait years, if not decades, before having any hope of accessing such services.
AsoFenix’s initial efforts involved using solar energy to bring potable water to rural households. Its first project was a solar water pump installed in the community of Candelaria in 2004. Solar panels power the pump, which operates at a rate of 10 gallons per minute. The water is pumped to a 6,500-gallon holding tank, from which it travels by force of gravity through pipes to the different houses of the community. Although local residents were initially skeptical that the sun could be used to pump water, the project was a great success and has made a huge difference in the lives of Candelaria’s 42 families. Before the pump, residents had to walk long distances to get water – half a kilometer just for drinking water and two kilometers to wash clothes. Parents sometimes had to keep their children home from school because they couldn’t bathe or wash clothes. Having clean water available right in the village – most houses now have their own faucets connected directly to the central pipe system – has reduced the incidence of flu, diarrhea, and other sickness, and has made it much easier to prepare food, bathe, do laundry, and complete other daily chores.
Since the success of this first project, local communities have welcomed AsoFenix with open arms. So far the organization has installed four potable water projects in four different communities, as well as two irrigation projects, and two microturbines (with a third nearly complete) that provide electricity to rural residents.
Another rural community where AsoFenix has made a difference is Malacatoya, a far-flung collection of 29 households that previously had no access to electricity. AsoFenix installed a hydropower turbine that generates approximately nine kilowatts of power per day, more than enough energy to light all the homes and provide some additional electricity for use on coffee farms. The turbine is located in a small cement building by a stream. Water enters the turbine and fills the small cups on the wheel. The weight of the water in the cups spins the wheel, generating electricity. Like the solar pump in Candelaria, the system is maintained by local residents whom AsoFenix has trained as technicians.
Residents of Malacatoya say having electricity has made an enormous difference in their lives. Household chores no longer have to be done during daylight hours, and children are able to do their homework at night. Air quality in homes has improved with the elimination of gas-burning lamps. Cruz Torres Burgo, one of the project technicians, says he has even been able to buy small appliances such as a refrigerator and a blender. He also saves a lot of time and money on his small organic coffee farm since he can depulp the coffee using an electric motor and sharpen tools with an electric grinder, rather than completing such tasks by hand
Although AsoFenix began with the goal of using renewable energy to solve specific problems of water and electricity, the organization’s goal has broadened to include associated projects to improve the quality of life in rural communities. The organization believes that it is not effective to simply come into a community with a renewable energy project without also implementing subsidiary projects that address other quality-of-life issues. Beyond energy issues, AsoFenix seeks to reduce poverty and improve health, education, environmental quality, and community organization.
The relative proximity of the communities to one another enables AsoFenix to maintain a close relationship with the families involved in the projects. AsoFenix staff visit regularly and spend a significant amount of time evaluating existing projects and speaking with local residents in order to understand their needs. In fact, Muñoz says wryly that he sometimes thinks he’ll never be able to retire or move on to other work because that would leave the communities without support.
AsoFenix has partnerships with four important international organizations: U.S.-based Green Empowerment, the Sweden-Nicaragua Friendship Society, the Finnish initiative Energy and Environment Partnership with Central America, and the Dutch organization Hivos (the Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation). These organizations provide funding and help strengthen AsoFenix’s technical capacity by providing interns and other resources.
Project Summary: Rainforest Alliance, Nicaragua
June 4, 2010
The Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Tourism Program seeks to transform the global tourism industry into one that benefits the planet and local communities, by providing training, technical assistance, and marketing support for sustainable tourism and hospitality businesses. Although sustainable tourism is often associated with rural or wilderness areas, Rainforest Alliance sees the concept as much broader in scope.
“We really see sustainable tourism as a set of principles that are applicable no matter what type of tourism you do. It’s not a niche market but a way of doing business,” said Ronald Sanabria, Vice President of Sustainable Tourism. “Sometimes it gets confused with ecotourism or nature tourism, but we have seen great examples of urban settings where sustainable tourism is being practiced.”
One such urban setting is the historic colonial city of Granada, Nicaragua, where Rainforest Alliance is working with five tourism businesses: four hotels – the Hotel Patio del Malinche, La Gran Francia, Hotel Plaza Colón, and La Casona de los Estrada – and a tour operator, Oro Travel. Granada is one of Nicaragua’s top tourism destinations, but the country’s youthfulness in the tourism arena means that the city has not yet been transformed by large international hotel chains and other generic tourism enterprises. As a result, the city is in a good position to develop its tourism industry in a sustainable manner.
Rainforest Alliance recently released the results of a study that illustrates the benefits of sustainable tourism in Granada. Employees of the five businesses in the Rainforest Alliance program receive salaries that are 40 percent higher than the Nicaraguan minimum wage. The vast majority – 96 percent – of employees are local, and these local employees take home the lion’s share (90 percent) of the wages. A large proportion (40 percent) of the employees are women, who earn a higher percentage of the wages than men. In addition, the five sustainable tourism businesses work with predominantly local employees and suppliers and are involved in local conservation and community projects. Unlike many Nicaraguan enterprises, they are all legally incorporated, meaning that they contribute to the running of the country through taxes and licenses.
All have adopted a range of sustainability-related measures including recycling and energy conservation. For example, at Hotel Patio del Malinche, all of the 15 guestrooms have recycling bins, and signs throughout the hotel urge guests to reduce water and energy usage by reusing towels and linens, turning off faucets properly, and shutting off lights and air conditioning when leaving a room. Rather than purchasing disposable water bottles, guests can refill bottles or ask for glasses of water at the hotel bar. In addition to hiring local staff and using Granadan suppliers, the hotel’s owners, Ramón Cirera and Lidia Teixidor, are involved with local community groups and finance scholarships for local students.
Like the Patio del Malinche, La Gran Francia promotes recycling and water and energy conservation through in-room signage. A restored colonial mansion that has been included in Granada’s historic registry, the hotel has 21 rooms and two restaurants located just off the main square of Granada. The almost entirely Granadan staff participates in a weekly street cleaning effort and works to educate the community about protecting the city’s natural resources and colonial heritage. La Gran Francia also recently made a large donation to support free reconstructive surgery for children born with cleft palates and other facial deformities. In addition to being the right thing to do, says General Manager Grisele Camille, sustainability is simply good business.
The largest of the hotels working with Rainforest Alliance, the Hotel Plaza Colón is another historic colonial mansion with 27 guestrooms located on the west side of the Parque Central, Granada’s main square. The hotel’s sustainability and corporate social responsibility efforts include a wide range of community initiatives, including working with a local school on projects such as facilities improvement, environmental education, recycling, cleaning days, and field trips. Another initiative addresses the issue of horse manure from the many horse-drawn carriages that ply the colonial streets and line up around the square directly across from the hotel. Currently the manure is simply allowed to pile up in the streets, but Hotel Plaza Colón plans to collect the manure and sell it to local farmers as compost. This will both clean up the streets and provide a valuable service to the agricultural community.
Another Plaza Colón project, designed by General Manager María Isabel Cantón, seeks to address one of Granada’s major social problems: the number of children who drop out of school and live on the streets, begging and sniffing glue. Since giving money to street children only feeds the problem, the hotel is offering an alternative for guests who want to help. Instead of giving money to street kids, tourists can purchase a “Plaza Colón Backpack” filled with a year’s worth of school supplies, which will be donated to a local school and awarded to good students, providing an incentive and financial assistance to children who stay in school.
The final hotel in the Rainforest Alliance program, La Casona de los Estrada, is owned and managed by Pascal Picot, who also owns Oro Travel. With just six rooms, La Casona de los Estrada is the smallest of the hotels working with Rainforest Alliance and retains the feeling of a private home. In addition to promoting water and energy conservation, Picot has sought to create a broader environmental consciousness among his employees which they can then transmit to their guests. In both his businesses Picot makes a point of employing local people and using Granadan suppliers. He believes tour operators have an important role in sustainable tourism since they “are in a position to choose and prioritize suppliers that are operating according to best practices.” On the community development side, Oro Travel is involved in various educational projects with the Esperanza School in Las Isletas de Granada, the more than 350 islands located just offshore in Lake Nicaragua. The company is also working with the Nicaraguan National Chamber of Tourism on a variety of conservation projects, including efforts to get Las Isletas established as a natural reserve and protect them from the growing threat of overdevelopment.
The efforts of these sustainable tourism businesses are not going unnoticed. Ardith Ekdahl and Elliott Whitby, Canadians staying at the Hotel Patio del Malinche, were impressed with the hotel’s recycling and energy conservation efforts. “We’ve been recommending a different hotel, but this hotel will get recommended now,” Ekdahl commented.
With such strong success in Granada, Rainforest Alliance continues to work to help other businesses in Nicaragua and beyond recognize the benefits of sustainable tourism and integrate the principles into their own operations.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 16 – Leaving Nicaragua
March 31, 2010
As I’ve mentioned a few times already, you have to be prepared for early mornings as a member of a Green Living Project expedition. On no day was this more true than the day we left Nicaragua. We were picked up at our hotel in Managua at 3 a.m. for the roughly eight-hour journey by car back to San José, Costa Rica, where I would be leaving the expedition due to another commitment that required me to fly back to the States a few days early. The guys, on the other hand, were headed to Panama, where they would visit two more projects before returning to the States. They had a 1:10 p.m. flight to catch from San José’s Pavas Airport to Bocas del Toro, in the islands off Panama’s northwest coast.
With plenty of room in the van to stretch out, we snoozed in the early-morning darkness all the way to the border. As it turned out, we needn’t have left quite so early. We arrived at the crossing at 5 a.m., but the border didn’t actually open until 6. Now wide awake and with time to kill, Ryan and Rob set off to explore with a videocamera. Soon afterward I spotted someone who looked a lot like Rob pedaling toward the van on a rickety bicycle cart like those used by produce vendors. As he approached I realized it really was Rob. He had borrowed a bicycle cart and was now entertaining himself – and quite a few bystanders – by cycling unsteadily down the road calling, “Lettuce! Tomatoes! Carrots!”
Shortly after 6:00 the border opened, and as some of the first travelers in line we completed our documentation procedures on both sides without hassle. We sped down the road to Liberia, where we had to change vans and drivers, and then on toward San José. As the morning went on – and particularly as we began to climb the winding road into the Central Highlands – traffic became more and more of an issue. Knowing the guys were supposed to be at Pavas Airport at noon to check in, we watched the clock anxiously as the traffic slowed to a crawl behind a line of buses and semi-trailer trucks. With no way to pass, there was little our driver could do.
We finally arrived at the airport around 12:40 p.m. to find all the other passengers already on board the Nature Air flight and the airline staff wondering whether Rob, John, and Ryan were going to turn up. Fortunately the guys and their luggage were able to get on the plane, and off they went to a new country and new adventures. I went to an airport hotel for the afternoon and flew out early the next morning, sorry to miss the Panama portion of the expedition but inspired by all the great projects we had visited in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 15 – Potters for Peace, Nicaragua
March 31, 2010
After an overnight at a comfortable small hotel in Managua called La Posada de Don Pantaleón, we set off at the crack of dawn in the Potters for Peace truck with Robert and Alvaro, headed for the small community of Ducuale Grande in northern Nicaragua, a four- to five-hour drive from Managua. Rob and Ryan lounged on a mattress in the bed of the truck while John and I opted to ride with inside the truck. The Nicaraguan sun was strong, and I had no desire to look like a tomato when we arrived at our destination.
We stopped for breakfast at a truck stop, then continued up the highway past varying landscapes, from dry plains to green cotton fields to a range of low mountains. We arrived at Ducuale Grande in mid-morning and spent the next five or six hours there filming the work of the potters.
Potters for Peace has been working with artisan potters in Nicaragua since the late 1980s. For 20 years the heart and soul of the organization was Ron Rivera, a potter and humanitarian dedicated to making a difference in the lives of the world’s poor. Sadly, Ron died in 2008 after contracting a particularly virulent form of malaria during a trip to set up a filter factory in Nigeria. Robert and his wife Beverly, the chairperson of PFP’s board of directors, now live full-time in Nicaragua and are dedicated to continuing Ron’s work. The Ducuale Grande cooperative is one of several organizations that PFP supports through technical and marketing assistance, as well as the facilitation of interchanges that help potters learn from each other and widen their view in order to further develop their work.
Vilma Guevara, the coordinator of the Ducuale Grande cooperative, told us that the group was established in 1990 when a group of women got together with the goal of improving their pottery techniques in order to better their lives. The community had a tradition of working with clay that had been passed down from generation to generation. From outside teachers the women learned a pottery technique that originated in Peru, which they have adapted to their own designs and traditions. When we arrived the women were busy painting designs in mud on bowls, pots, vases, and other items. The pots are then fired with the mud still on them. After they cool, the mud is washed off, leaving the patterns in lighter colors on the clay.
After a full day with the women of the cooperative, we headed back to Managua in the late afternoon, stopping for a very late lunch at an organic café just outside Estelí. As we left the café, the light sprinkle that had begun as we left Ducuale Grande turned into a heavy downpour. Poor Ryan and Rob, still riding in the back of the truck, got completely soaked. With the camera gear inside the cab, there was no room for two more people. Even after the rain stopped Rob and Ryan rode most of the way back stoically standing in the bed of the truck, braced against the cab, drying in the wind and avoiding the sodden mattress that had been their seat. It was after 9 p.m. when we finally reached Managua, where we stopped by a supermarket before saying goodbye to Robert and Alvaro and then tumbling into bed as soon as possible, knowing we had only a few hours to sleep before setting off on the long journey back to Costa Rica early the following morning.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 14, part 2 – Potters for Peace, Nicaragua
March 31, 2010
Aft
er our visit to Candelaria with AsoFenix we arrived in Managua slightly behind schedule but ready to dive right into our final project in Nicaragua: Potters for Peace (PFP). After transferring our gear from the AsoFenix van to the PFP truck, we set off again together with PFP Nicaragua Country Director Robert Pillers and his son-in-law, Project Director Alvaro Aburto. They drove us to a factory on the outskirts of Managua where Potters for Peace is manufacturing ceramic water filters as an effective way to bring clean drinking water to people who otherwise are unable to obtain or afford it.
Made from porous clay with a coating of silver, the simple and inexpensive filters remove 99.98 percent of bacteria, parasites, and turbidity and have been praised by both the U.S. Center for Disease Control and the United Nations for their effectiveness in providing potable water at the household level. During our visit to the factory, Robert and Juan Carlos Guevara, the production manager, walked us through the process of making the filters, which involves mixing finely milled clay with sawdust and water, pressing the mixture into a mold, drying it, and then firing it in a kiln. The firing burns away the sawdust, leaving miniscule pores for the water to flow through. After firing the filters are soaked and a quality-control test is conducted to measure the flow rate. The final step is to apply a thin coating of silver to kill any bacteria that get through the pores in the filter itself. In keeping with PFP’s mission of bringing clean drinking water to as many people as possible, the entire process is open-source technology, available on the organization’s website.
Potters for Peace was originally established in the mid-1980s to help artisan potters in Nicaragua improve their technology, skills, and marketing in order to make a better living. The devastation caused in Nicaragua by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 prompted the organization to began producing ceramic water filters to address the lack of clean drinking water. PFP no longer operates filter-making facilities directly but continues to provide training in order to enable others to establish factories around the world. So far PFP has facilitated the establishment of 33 filter-making facilities in 25 countries.
“Every 15 seconds a child dies because of the lack of potable water,” Robert told us, adding that what keeps him motivated is seeing “a child who would have been sick, who would have suffered, who would have missed days of school, now have a chance at a normal life.” Once again, as with AsoFenix, our visit to the Aquafiltros factory with Potters for Peace reinforced the importance of simple things such as clean water that it’s all too easy to take for granted.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 14 – AsoFenix, Nicaragua
March 30, 2010
After a night in a basic hostel in the town of San José de los Remates – where mosquitos feasted on several members of our team – we set off back down the road to Teustepe, stopping once again for breakfast at the café in the park (most of us opted to pass on the salty cheese this time) before continuing on to Candelaria. The road to Candelaria was in the process of being paved – but only in sections, as each municipality was responsible for its own paving. No asphalt here, either – workers were laying stone bricks piece by piece, lining them up to create a smooth surface. The paving efforts ended long before we reached our destination, however, and it seemed unlikely that Candelaria would see any road improvement anytime soon.
When we finally arrived it seemed as though most of the community was waiting to greet us. We made quite a parade as we walked the short distance from the road to the solar panels that power the pump AsoFenix has installed to bring potable water to the community. While Rob and Ryan filmed the pump John and I headed up the hill with a local resident named Apolonio to scout out interview locations near the storage tank from which the water is piped to the homes of Candelaria’s 42 families.
Once the rest of the group had joined us we filmed an interview with project technician David Soza on top of the tank, followed by an interview with Nidia González Jarquín, the coordinator of the community committee that oversees the project. Nidia explained how difficult it was to get water before the AsoFenix project was installed. Candelaria residents had to walk half a kilometer just to get drinking water; to wash clothes they had to walk for at least an hour. Before the solar-powered potable water system, she told us, “There was a lot of sickness, flu and diarrhea, vomiting. Since we’ve had the project people aren’t sick as much.”
Another committee member, María Feliz González, whom we interviewed later at her house, added that before the project there was no water to bathe her children. It was difficult to send the children to school if they couldn’t bathe, she explained, but without a well of her own getting water involved carrying a heavy barrel for two kilometers. “Now life is more relaxing for mothers,” María explained. “We have more time with our kids, it’s easier to prepare food, and we don’t need to go far to get water in the middle of the night.” As a follow-up to the water project, AsoFenix has helped María’s family install a biodigestor to burn organic waste for fuel, which means she no longer has to trek to the mountains for firewood. They’ve also helped her set up a cement washboard station for her laundry; the greywater goes to water the agricultural fields. This is just one example of AsoFenix’s belief that is is not enough to just come into a community with a renewable energy project and then leave. Instead, the organization follows up with subsidiary projects to address other quality-of-life issues and maintains a close connection with the communities in which it works. Long-term volunteers Sarah and Seth Hays spend much of their time visiting the various communities and talking to residents to understand their needs and evaluate existing projects.
For our team, however, our time with AsoFenix was coming to an end. We left Candelaria and once again made the trip to Teustepe. By this time we felt like regulars at the café in the park, where we had a quick lunch before setting off for Managua, where we were expected that same afternoon at our final Nicaraguan project, Potters for Peace.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 13, part 2 – AsoFenix, Nicaragua
March 30, 2010
Our visit to the small community of Malacatoya continued as we hiked down the track from Irma Martín’s house to where our van was waiting. From there we drove back up the rutted road to the house of Orlando Castellón, whose wife had prepared a lunch of rice, beans, chicken, and potato for us. We had planned to interview Orlando, but as a community leader he was needed at church – it was a Sunday – so instead Jaime recommended we interview one of the other members of the village committee, Cruz Torres Burgo, who is also trained as a technician for the AsoFenix turbine project.
Like Irma, Cruz talked about the difference electricity has made to his family. The air quality in their home has improved with the elimination of gas lighting, and the children no longer have to study by candlelight. The family has even been able to buy a blender and a small refrigerator, allowing them to waste less food and even to give the kids some treats, such as ice cream. On his small organic coffee farm, Cruz now saves a lot of time and money depulping the coffee using an electric motor. “Before I had to depulp the coffee by hand,” he explained. “It took all day. I was coming home late at night, sometimes as late as 10 p.m. Now it takes a half an hour to depulp the coffee with an electric motor.” He is also able to sharpen tools using an electric grinder, rather than by hand.
We wrapped up our day in Malacatoya with an interview with Jaime Muñoz about AsoFenix and its mission. Carefully avoiding cow patties, we chose a scenic spot in a field with a view of the hills behind, but just as we began filming, the wind suddenly picked up dramatically. Still, Jaime’s words rose above the howling wind and the flapping of the light reflectors as he spoke about AsoFenix’s work to improve the lives of rural Nicaraguans. “The biggest challenge is to improve the lives of people and families in rural areas,” Jaime said. “In rural communities, 60 percent of the population does not have access to safe water or enough water. The majority of the rural population also does not have access to electricity. This impedes development for families and also impedes economic production.” AsoFenix seeks not just to provide energy but to reduce poverty and improve health, education, environmental quality, and community organization. As Jaime said, “Our goal goes beyond just energy to larger issues.”
Judging by what we saw in Malacatoya, even a small project can make a big difference.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 13 – AsoFenix, Nicaragua
March 29, 2010
We rose bright and early for our trip into rural Nicaragua with AsoFenix. Seth and Sarah Hays, volunteers on a three-year assignment with AsoFenix through the Mennonite Central Committee, picked us up at the AsoFenix office together with the organization’s founder and director Jaime Muñoz, and off we went into the countryside northeast of Managua. After about an hour and a half we stopped for a breakfast of eggs, rice, beans, tortillas, and extremely salty cheese at a café in the central park of Teustepe, the town where Seth and Sarah live. As we were eating Jaime explained how AsoFenix grew out of his realization that there was a need to develop renewable energy in the Nicaraguan countryside and practically apply the results of academic research to local communities. From this initial goal has come a broader focus of helping rural families improve their quality of life through renewable energy and associated projects to address other issues.
AsoFenix’s first project was a solar-powered pumping system that brings potable water to the community of Candelaria, which we would be visiting the following day. First, however, we were headed to Malacatoya, another rural community where AsoFenix had set up a hydropower turbine to generate electricity for families who previously had had none. Another couple of hours past Teustepe we parked at the base of a dirt track that led up a hill and past some of the houses of the far-flung community.
Together with Pablo Bravo, a local resident trained as a technician for the turbine, and Orlando Castellón, the coordinator of the local committee which oversees the project, we trekked up the hill, though the fields, and down some very steep and rocky paths, before finally crossing a river to the small building that housed the turbine. Pablo and Jaime explained how the turbine works: water enters and fills the small cups on the wheel; the weight of the water in the cups spins the wheel, generating electricity. The turbine generates approximately nine kilowatts per day, which is more than enough to supply the 29 households of the community with electricity. The electricity is mostly used for lighting homes, although some of it is used on coffee plantations.
On our way back to the van we stopped in at Pablo’s house, where we interviewed his wife, Irma Martín. She told us that life is much better now that she has electricity. Before, she couldn’t work except during daylight hours, and her house was always full of smoke from burning gas. Now, she said, it’s much easier to keep her home clean. Also, her children are now able to do their homework at night. Before electricity, they had to use a candle and couldn’t both study at the same time. Nicaragua is the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, after Haiti, and hearing Irma speak about the difference electricity has made in her life was a profound reminder of the importance of things those of us from wealthier countries take for granted.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 12 – Rainforest Alliance, Nicaragua
March 29, 2010
Our second day in Granada began with a boat tour with Oro Travel, a tour company owned by Pascal Picot, who also owns a small hotel called La Casona de los Estrada. A Frenchman who has lived in Central America for two decades, Pascal is working with Rainforest Alliance to enhance the sustainability of both of his operations.
Pascal picked us up at our hotel and brought us to the launch area on the shores of Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America, for a trip among the Isletas de Granada, a collection of more than 350 islands that is a refuge for many resident and migratory bird species. It’s also under threat of development – it seemed as though almost every islet that wasn’t already inhabited had a Land For Sale sign on it. Still, it was a lovely trip, and the development doesn’t yet seem to be having extreme impacts on wildlife. We saw ospreys, kingfishers, egrets, and numerous other bird species as we motored along the waterways surrounding the islands.
Seeking a quiet spot with good light and
an appealing backdrop, we set up for our interview with Pascal at the end of a dock next to a bar on one of the islands. Apart from the owners, the bar was completely deserted when we arrived, but it didn’t stay that way. As we attempted to film the interview, one interruption after another broke the peace. If it wasn’t a boatload of tourists arriving for a drink it was a baby crying or a chainsaw buzzing. Only with many takes and a good deal of patience did we finally manage to get what we needed.
“We can’t forget that tourism has countless indirect effects that can’t be measured,” Pascal told us, noting that tourism impacts everyone from agricultural producers to beer brewers to tax collectors. “The role of the local tour operator is very important. We are in a position to choose and prioritize suppliers that are operating according to best practices.” In addition to selecting local suppliers that operate sustainably, Oro Travel is working with the Nicaraguan National Chamber of Tourism on a variety of conservation projects, including efforts to control construction in the Isletas and establish the area as a natural reserve. Oro Travel is also involved in various educational projects with the Esperanza School in Las Isletas.
After the interview we headed back to Granada to visit Pascal’s hotel, La Casona de los Estrada, the smallest of the properties we visited, with just six rooms. The building is a former private home that preserves a colonial character and many original features. Pascal has sought to create an environmental consciousness among his employees which they can then transmit to their guests. Efforts include reducing water and energy usage through small actions that make a difference. Pascal also noted that the Casona’s employees are all Nicaraguan (half of them women), and the suppliers, whenever possible, are from Granada.
That afternoon we wrapped up some final filming in Granada, and then it was time to set off for our next project, AsoFenix, which delivers alternative energy solutions to rural communities. Seth Hays, an American working with AsoFenix, picked us up in Granada and drove us back to Managua, where we dined on pupusas (El Salvadoran stuffed tortillas) before settling in for the night in the dorm room at the AsoFenix office.