Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building

by Long Way Home, Inc.
Play Video
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building
Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building

Project Report | Mar 17, 2014
From Scrap to School

By Lydia Sorensen | GlobalGiving In-the-Field Representative

The halls of Tecnico Chixot
The halls of Tecnico Chixot

The following is a postcard from Lydia Sorensen, GlobalGiving's In-the-Field Representative in Guatemala, about her recent visit to Long Way Home.

According to the Pan American Health Organization, “[n]owhere in Guatemala is there a system for the final disposal of solid waste. In the urban areas it is estimated that 47 % of the population has the benefit of solid waste collection. The rest of the people burn, bury, or toss out their trash. In rural areas only 4% of the population has the benefit of trash collection services. The waste that is collected, in both urban and rural areas, is deposited in dumps with no further treatment.” (http://www.paho.org/english/sha/prflgut.htm) The statistics may be from 2001, but any visitor to Guatemala will tell you not much has changed since then. Trash lies strewn along side every road, stacked in every valley, thrown in every gutter.

Long Way Home is working to not only use some of what has been thrown away, but to change the way that Guatemalans think about waste, pollution, and conservation. They run a fully-accredited primary school in their green school (which is still under constructions and will someday also house a vocational school teaching teenagers sustainable construction) and supplement the national curriculum with lessons on recycling and composting. The lucky first through sixth graders who currently attend the school not only get a great education, they also get it in an amazing place.

The Tecnico Chixot Education Center sits on grassy hill overlooking the city of San Juan Comalapa. The colorful reliefs on the outside walls show Mayan scenes, flowers, and natural designs. Inside the classrooms (whose walls are constructed from tires) natural light shines through the glass bottles embedded in the ceilings, and a water filtration system provides clean drinking water. A retaining wall built using tires (so many were required that Long Way Home not only collected all the trash tires in the town but they actually repelled down into the dump to get more) holds up the school and supports the new construction. It’s a school that any student, and any community, would be proud to call their own.

Students learning
Students learning
Snack break!
Snack break!
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Jan 22, 2014
Adding a New Grade for the New School Year!

By Jesse Eells-Adams | Long Way Home Intern

Oct 21, 2013
Embarking on a New Phase

By Genevieve Croker | Director of Development

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Organization Information

Long Way Home, Inc.

Location: Culpepper, VA - USA
Website:
Facebook: Facebook Page
Twitter: @lwhome_org
Project Leader:
Matt Paneitz
Executive Director
Culpepper , VA United States

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