News
Strenght test to the FerroCement Panels
Panels of Ferro Cement (PFC) have been used by EcoTec in Nicaragua since 1991, when the Cuban EcoSur partner CECAT intorduced them. The system had been developped by Dr. Hugo Wainsthok who in earlier years had built large fisherboats in ferrocement and in 1984 built a series of two-storey houses with panels in Cuba.
From mule trails to the electronic highway
A revolutionary decade for south-south knowledge sharing
Sharing implies having something to share and not being afraid to share it, a give and take.
Often the word “sharing” is substituted by “management”, becoming knowledge management and which implies a power relationship. This relationship is usually just another step on the continuum of north-south power.
By Kathryn Pozak
MIT mission visits EcoSur Nicaragua
Joel Veenstra, a young civil engineering student from the Massachussets Institute of Technologies, MIT, made a one week training in the offices of EcoSur in Nicaragua to learn everything about the FerroCement Panels (PFC) construction system. The knowledge from this training will be applied in construction projects in Kenya, Africa.
The PFC construction system allows to build a basic core shelter of 15 square meter in just 3 days. It is a very fast and effective emergency response construction system. The EcoSur network is setting up in Haiti a PFC and MicroConcrete Roofing tiles workshop to rebuild after the disaster. This workshop will also be used as a apprentice school for masonry students with the Dual Education system, already succesfully implemented in Nicaragua.
SwissContact meets the Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln in Ecuador
Sandra Gavilanez, from SwissContact Ecuador, Gina Galvez, from SwissContact Peru, co-director of the Clean Air Regional Program and Eduardo Idrovo, Environmental Quality Techinician from the Environmental Commision of the Municipality of Cuenca, Azuay Province, were very impressed by the energy saving possibilities of the brick kilns built by the EcoSur Network in Chambo through the project "Sustainable Ecological and Economical Production of Bricks"
In Peru, the Clean Air Regional Program (PRAL) seeks that the organizations in charge of the air quality management, in Arequipa and Cusco, implement, through sustainable and replicable models, the objectives of the "To Clean the Air" program in the Peruvian national, regional and local environmental management framework.
The Municipality of Cuenca carries out an improvement in the traditional brick kilns and soon, the traditional artisans and brick makers will be visiting Chambo to look at the eficiency and operation of the Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln (VSBK)
