News - August 2003
CP40 blocks now produced in Nigeria
The first CP40 block workshop in Nigeria (the first in the entire African continent) is in production. Sergio Betancourt of CIDEM ensured its installation and quality of the blocks during a second mission for GECOTEC, whereby a local organization in the area of Abuja decided to produce this alternative cement. Because of the astronomical price of lime they decided to use puzzolana alone as mineral admixture, instead of mixing it with lime. This works extremely well. The puzzolana tests were carried out at the University of Kassel in Germany after the first mission to assess the feasibility of CP40 production.

MCR roof in Angola
On their travels throughout the world, colleagues of EcoSouth come across MCR roofs in surprising places. Recently Ivan Labra was in Sumba, a coastal town south of Luanda, in Kwanza Sul Province in Angola. He discovered that Caritas had produced the tiles and roofed its buildings with MCR.

Professors
The construction faculty at the University of Santa Clara, Cuba, has a joint investigation project with the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. They are studying and documenting the new style management based on popular participation that has been implemented by the CIDEM housing projects in the province. Five Cuban professors were in Lausanne at the beginning of June for an interchange about progress of their joint work.
