News - January 2003
Women tilemakers in Mexico receive enterprise award
The tile workshop of the Treig women´s cooperative in Etla, Oaxaca received second prize in a concourse for outstanding and success economical enterprises managed by women. The tile workshop was initiated in 2000 through a program with students from the Technical University of Berlin. The women produce 1,500 tiles per month which are sold to a developing clientele that includes private dwellings as well as public buildings. Among their marketing strategies is to take advantage of the weekly market, whereby they have a small display roof and distribute promotional flyers. Their profits since beginning production are equivalent to one month´s sales, which they have reinvested in improvements to the tile workshop and to support a capacitation center of their own. EcoSouth provided the original capacitation, whereby two members of Treig attended a course at the EcoSouth center in Nicaragua, followed up by an onsite course for the entire cooperative in Etla.
BSHF calendar includes Two decades after the earthquake, Guatemala
The Caritas post-earthquake adobe reconstruction project in Baja Verapaz, Guatemala is included as the May 2003 photo in the calendar of the Building and Social Housing Foundation. That project after the 1976 earthquake was directed by one of EcoSouth´s principal experts, Prof. Dr. Kurt Rhyner. One of the winning projects was the Architect of the Community Program of Cuba, an approach also being used by several EcoSouth partners in Latin America and Africa.
