Warm Wishes from El Salvador

We recently received this letter from Armando Hernandez Juarez, our long-time partner in El Salvador and Director of Arboles y Agua para el Pueblo. Armando is a leader in environmental conservation in Central America and we are honored to work with him.  His words meant so much to all of us here at Trees, Water & People that we thought we would them with you too!

(Letter translated by Sebastian Africano)

TWP’s International Director, Sebastian Africano (left) and Armando Hernandez Juarez (right) stand with a clean cookstove beneficiary in El Salvador.

Dear Richard Fox and our family at Trees, Water & People,

My sincere congratulations on celebrating 15 years of achievements, contribution to the environment and thus to this land that gives us life, food and clothing.

What better way to celebrate 15 years of TWP than with the satisfaction we get from raising the dignity of the people whom we support with your projects, and with the tireless effort and human sensitivity with which the TWP family does its work.  

On this occasion I also take other opportunity to warmly greet another of the pioneers of this work, I refer to Mr. Stuart Conway; a great benefactor and visionary, as his efforts have led to concrete works in our country El Salvador, benefiting a large number of families and communities through the establishment and production of countless trees that have protected groundwater resources, climate and forest recovery in general, as well as the provision of stoves that have actually contributed to improving the socioeconomic conditions of families have benefited from this project.

I do not want it to go unnoticed that the unconditional efforts of the TWP family have also helped reduce pollution levels and therefore prevent infectious diseases in families and communities who have been favored with latrines projects.

It is gratifying that our work in El Salvador through TWP leaves a trail of impact in communities and even public and private institutions and service organizations such as the Peace Corps Office who use our support to develop projects that benefit the target population of their programs.

Trees, Water & People Family, may the fifteen years that we celebrate on this occasion be multiplied continually.

Respectfully, if you will allow me, receive my thanks for being part of TWP.

Attentively,

 Armando Hernandez Juarez

Photo of the Week: Healthy Toilets, Healthy Families

 

About this photo

One of the primary causes of surface and groundwater contamination in El Salvador is the deposit of human waste in shallow pit latrines. These makeshift toilets frequently leach into groundwater or overflow and pool on ground surfaces, which poses a serious threat to family and environmental health. However, since they are inexpensive and necessary, pit latrines are prevalent in peri-urban and rural areas.

Trees, Water & People and our partners, Arboles y Agua para el Pueblo (AAP), build improved dry composting latrines (pictured above) that consist of two containers for the deposit of fecal matter, with a separator for urine. The latrine is designed so that an average family of five members fills one container in approximately six months.

These facilities will help local residents avoid contamination of their precious soils and water supplies, thereby reducing the prevalence and incidence of gastrointestinal diseases, parasites and dysentery.

To support the construction of more dry composting latrines in Central America please click here. Thank you for your support!

Photo of the Week: Clean Cookstoves Saving Lives in Honduras

Our partnership with the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA) supported the construction of 600 clean cookstoves in Honduras and El Salvador in 2012. Thank you ECPA!

From El Salvador, with Love

We recently received this beautiful letter from Sara Gale, a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in the rural village of Rio Abajo, El Salvador, who we trained to build clean cookstoves as part of our partnership with the Peace Corps and the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas. This letter is a reminder of how important our work is to families who live each day in a state of energy poverty, with no access to basic energy. We are honored to work with Sara and all the other PCVs who are dedicating years of their life in service to others. Thank you, Sara!

Dear Trees, Water & People,

On behalf of my community in rural El Salvador I want to thank you all for your amazing and generous work. We enjoyed having Sebastian, Elliot, and Ken visit in August. I believe that they saw how in love the families are with their Estufas Justas! The work that you guys do to design, monitor and re-design is so valuable to so many people of the world. Although I see the stove as perfect now, I’m certain with your help it will be even closer to perfection in the years to come. Thank you for making this work your life passion; it was obvious by the enthusiasm, expertise and experience of Sebastian in improved cookstoves that my community of Río Abajo is in great hands with Trees, Water & People. Although my end of service is in March of the coming year I hope to extend in my site a year longer to be able to monitor the 41 stoves in my project and hopefully build 60 more in a second phase in the coming months. We are currently working on getting replacement planchas up in the community, as that thickness of sheet metal isn’t sold anywhere near here. I’m looking forward to continuing my work here for an extra year and to seeing how each household continues to care for and appreciate their Estufa Justa.

¡Gracias de Corazon!

Sara Gale y Los Miembros de Río Abajo

Partner Spotlight: A Voice for Conservation in El Salvador

by Elliot Cooper, International Program Coordinator

Armando Hernandez, Director of Arboles y Agua para El Pueblo

Armando Hernandez has been Trees, Water & People’s link to sustainable reforestation and clean cookstove implementation in El Salvador since 2000. Currently the Director of Arboles y Agua para el Pueblo (AAP), this outgoing, gregarious, and considerate Salvadoreño has been the mastermind of these projects since the very beginning and, to this day, he continues to work as hard as he did more than a decade ago.

Don Armando, as he is known throughout the TWP office, is a courteous and respectful individual, always taking into account the well-being of his staff while balancing the needs and wants of the many communities he serves.

“This is a difficult country to work in because environmental awareness is only a secondary concern to the general population,” notes Don Armando. “In the communities we work in, there is a significant lack of jobs and opportunities for advancement, so people only worry about themselves and don’t think about the natural world that surrounds them.”

Even with the challenges that present themselves on a daily basis in El Salvador, Don Armando has overseen the planting of more than 555,000 trees and the successful construction of nearly 4,200 clean cookstoves.

“The best part of my job is contributing to the improvement of lives of not only individuals, but also families and communities through our projects. Whether it is stoves, reforestation, latrines, or soil conversation courses, we bring our environmental message to everyone in order to shift values and drastically improve lives of our fellow Salvadoreños.”

Armando Hernandez (center) with staff of Arboles y Agua para el Pueblo

Photo of the Week: Community Tree Planting in El Salvador

A recent community tree planting day near El Porvenir, El Salvador brought all ages out to help plant hundreds of seedlings.

Photo of the Week: Improving Community Health with Composting Latrines

A woman and her child stand next to their new composting latrine. Trees, Water & People and our partners, Arboles y Agua para el Pueblo (AAP), build improved dry composting latrines for families living in rural El Salvador. These improved toilets reduce diseases and improve soil and water quality.

Notes from the Field: Peace Corps Collaboration Brings Hundreds More Cookstoves to El Salvador

by Elliot Cooper, International Program Coordinator

In developing countries like El Salvador, where many people lack access to basic energy infrastructure, women must spend hours each week collecting fuelwood to cook their family meals. (Photo by Sebastian Africano)

For being slightly smaller than Massachusetts, El Salvador has a myriad of different cultures, socioeconomic realities, and geographic features. We’re now on our last day in this wonderful country, having spent three very long work days out in the field, observing, facilitating, questioning, smiling, and laughing.

We headed out early on our 1st field day, leaving San Salvador with our in-country counterparts Arboles y Agua para el Puelo (AAP) a bit before 7:30am. We drove east along the main artery of El Salvador until we hit San Miguel, and then turned north for an hour before running into San Francisco Gotera. From here, we took our vehicle out of two wheel drive and went into 4×4 mode as we headed up into the hills to meet with our first Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV), Andrew Niiro, who is facilitating the building of Justa clean coookstoves in his community of Gualindo Arriba located high in the hills above Gotera.

Elliot Cooper (left) presents Andrew Niiro with his Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA) tiles for the clean cookstoves he has built in his community in El Salvador.

Andres, as everyone calls him, has built more than 20 clean cookstoves, as part of the Peace Corps and TWP’s work with the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA) “Improving Access to Clean Energy in Latin America” initiative.  After we met Andres’ community counterpart Rosa Gonzalez, we had a quick meeting to introduce parties and move through the formal motions of Latin American culture.  We presented Rosa and Andres with their official ECPA tiles (a 15×15 cm tile shown in the photo below) that they will adhere to every Justa stove built within the project.

This first year, AAP has been charged with building 300 stoves, as with the next two years, making 900 in total. With our fiscal year ending on September 30^th, AAP has entered more than 10 communities and constructed more than 275 Justa clean cookstoves, which will offset more than 1,650 tons of carbon emissions during their lifetimes. This number is impressive, but even more so when you think about the reality of AAP’s monetary limitations, the harsh roads of the country, and the amount of time that goes into training local stove builders, teaching stove beneficiaries how to correctly use their cookstoves, and monitoring activities down the line that will ensure successful use and maintenance of the cookstoves.

We had a great time- albeit sweating profusely- out in the Eastern region of El Salvador, visiting another community hosting a PCV invested in the Justa cookstove project, and then hit the road for our four hour journey back to San Salvador. Over the next two days, we headed north towards the Honduran border, meeting up with yet another PCV implementing a project of more than 40 clean cookstoves, and then to the West to see some reforestation and dry composting latrine projects.

A community reforestation event in El Salvador brought all ages out to help plant seedlings in the local area. (Photo by Sebastian Africano)

Today, we will help inaugurate the new Renewable Energy Training & Demonstration Center in Tegucigalpa at 10am MST. Stay tuned for updates!

Corporate Partner Spotlight: Smartpress.com joins 100% Replanted Program

Smartpress.com is taking new steps in becoming an ecologically conscious and responsible company through its partnership with Trees, Water & People (TWP) and its initiative to become 100% Replanted. Smartpress.com has made a promise to replant the equivalent amount of trees used during printing on a monthly basis starting July 1, 2012.

“Through this project we are taking our initiative to exercise environmental responsibility to the next level by making the commitment to be one of the first printing companies ever to become 100% Replanted,” says Chuck Reese, president, Smartpress.com.

Through the 100% Replanted Program trees are planted in rural communities that border protected areas of forests in El Salvador. Planting trees in Central America has several important benefits: the cost of planting is low, the trees grow quickly in the tropical climate, and the tree nurseries create jobs for local people.

About Smartpress.com
Smartpress.com is the fastest, easiest way to buy print online. The company prides itself on world-class customer service and attention to detail with a 100% outcome guarantee. The Smartpress.com advantage is providing a simple ordering process with fast turnaround at competitive prices. The company uses state-of-the-art digital presses with a wide selection of paper stocks, and the ability to deliver top-quality results in quantities as small as a single piece.  To see the wide variety of offerings and to learn more, please visit http://smartpress.com

To learn more about how you or your business can become 100% Replanted please email Megan Maiolo-Heath at megan@treeswaterpeople.org or visit www.replanttrees.org.

Notes from the Field: Soil Conservation Project Gains Ground

By David Velasquez, Arboles y Agua para el Pueblo Forestry Technician
Translated and adapted by Claudia Menendez, International Program Coordinator

Francisco’s family depends on their land for their livelihood.

Francisco Sayes has been participating in the Soil Conservation Project since Trees, Water & People and Arboles y Agua para el Pueblo (AAP) initiated the workshop series in 2010. He understands that using good agricultural practices on his land helps minimize production costs and increases crop quality.

“The knowledge we’ve gained through the workshops have helped me save money, but most importantly they’ve improved the quality, taste, and health of my corn crop.”

The Soil Conservation Project taught Francisco how to use organic fertilizer, such as chicken manure, to improve crop results. Last year, he applied 20 sacks of organic chicken manure fertilizer on his corn crop. The cost of each sack is $1, compared to previous years when he spent $70 for one sack of chemical fertilizer. “This technique I learned not only helped me save $50, but I clearly noticed the corncobs were bigger, healthier, and the corn grain more solid.”

Francisco Sayes with his ‘A’ frame for digging contour lines on his farm in El Salvador.

Additionally, Francisco has gained a better understanding of the layout and topography of his land using an ‘A’ frame to dig contour lines, and has planted sorghum and grasses such as Vetiver. These help maximize rainfall absorption on the slopes, minimize soil erosion, and provide forage for his animals.

Along the perimeter of the 1.75 acres of farmland, Francisco has planted three species of hardwood trees as a living fence: Laurel criollo (Cordia alliodora), Madre cacao (Gliricidia sepium), and Memble (Poeppigia procera). He incorporates all the leaves, enriching and protecting the soil, and prunes the trees to control the amount of shade over the crops. In turn, the tree pruning provides Francisco and his family with their daily supply of firewood.

Since 2010, TWP and local partner AAP have trained more than 60 farmers in soil conservation methods. The most important and challenging part of this project is making sure that the farmers try implementing the techniques on their own land. David, AAP’s forestry technician and workshop facilitator, says that once farmers practice the techniques and see for themselves improved soil conditions and better crops, they realize that a little extra effort makes all the difference.