A Fundraising Activity

AS A PART OF THEIR ACTIVITIES as volunteers assisting the affordable housing project called Concrete Blocks for Floor and Papercrete Panels for Walls, the two French youth named Romain Wyts and Maxime Antier have organized and promoted their first fundraising activity. Money collected will be handed over the non-profit organization CHOI, which leads the project.

The goal of the project is to offer to the residents of the very poor neighborhoods in Chimbote, especially those like the 25 de Mayo neighborhood and surrounding ones, new kinds of affordable and safe building materials, instead of reeds and esteras (a kind of panel made of reed woven and used for wall and roof) which are not safe but are very flammable. It is also expected a pilot house will be able to be built using these new construction materials.

This fundraising activity was held on Saturday, July 3rd at 8:30 in the evening, at the backyard of Fr. Jack Davis's parish Our Lady of Perpetual Help in La Victoria neighborhood. It was promoted under the title: GREAT BINGO AND KARAOKE. The price of every bingo card was S/ 2.00 ($ 0.70) and people could buy them at Sr. Edith's office in the parish or from the volunteers Romain and Maxime. There were 5 prizes for 5 winners of the bingo and also one for the best karaoke singer.

These were the Bingo Prizes:

1. Family cake
2. Set of books
3. School supplies
4. Gift from Fr. Jack Davis
5. Dinner with a volunteer of your choice

According to the volunteers the event met expectations, since many people collaborated with this initiative. The two French volunteers have also organized another fundraising activity, to continue to help the housing project, which will be held on Sunday July 18th. I will also share with you all about this new activity.

Click on the image below or on the link to see more PICTURES.

Fireproof Papercrete Panels

FROM MY PREVIOUS POST you got to know that prototypes of concrete blocks and papercrete panels were made successfully, according to the recommendations of the soils mechanic and materials testing laboratory of a local university. That means they passed the test related to resistance to the pressure force. Now it is very important to test the papercrete panel prototype to see how resistant it is to fire.

So, the leader of the technical part of the project, Eng. Pablo Muguerza Toro, was heading this test together with Mr. Orlando Bemúdez, executive director of the non-profit organization CHOI and responsible for the administrative part of this project. He put a piece of papercrete panel through fire for a reasonable time and it did not catch fire. This way its resistance to fire was demonstrated.

While materials like estera (a kind of panel made of reed woven and used for wall and roof), paper, cardboard, etc. burn quickly, it was evident, by this test, that papercrete is resistant to fire, since even though it was put through fire, this material never caught fire.

Considering the successful result of this test, we now expect to be able to make concrete blocks for floor and papercrete panels for walls in gradual quantities to build houses using these affordable building materials in poor neighborhoods of Chimbote, and this way helping the motto of the project to come true: Better House, Better Life.

Click on the image below or on the link to see more PICTURES.