Long Way Home is very excited to announce the inaugural year of its' new Green Building Academy this summer. The Academy will be a month-long intensive green building course with both classroom and hands-on learning. It will take place in Comalapa, Guatemala and give international participants a solid background in green, sustainable building and construction practices.
The program fee itself is USD $2,700 per person, which includes their lodging, food, and transportation for the 30 days of the Academy session. As is typical of indigenous communities, Comalapa faces issues of deeply entrenched poverty with 64% of the population living in poverty and 27% living in extreme poverty. Many people, especially local Guatemalans who are interested in the Green Building Academy do not have the means to cover the entire program fee.
We hope to offer this experience to as many Guatemalans, especially Comalapans, as possible and therefore looking forward to offer scholarships to local people that will cover the expenses and give them a chance to participate in the Academy. Green building is an empowering skill that can offer more employment opportunities and self-sufficiency. With the education learned in the Academy, each participant will have the knowledge of concepts for their own construction builds with local materials.
The intent of the program is to give participants the knowledge and experience they need to build their own home (or any other structure) using green building methods and materials. A local family with limited economic resources will be involved in construction and will receive the completed home at the end of the Academy.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
