Click here to download to AIDG's 2006 Annual Report as a pdf file.

Director's Message

AIDG works to fill the rural poor’s basic needs for energy, sanitation and clean water. In the countries where we work and plan to expand, communities are clamoring for better solutions to meet these needs. At AIDG, we create a new breed of business that manufactures, installs and repairs green technologies for people living between $2-4 a day, development NGOs, and institutions. These local businesses staffed with locally recruited engineering talent provide life-changing solutions that are affordable, environmentally sound and sustainable. We believe that this kind of infrastructure development is essential to breaking the cycle of poverty.

On a combined 2-year budget of less than $150,000, we established our first incubated business, XelaTeco in Guatemala and saw them through the completion of a $45,000 UN-supported micro-hydroelectric system for a local community. Now 200 people have electricity in their homes for the first time, and renewable energy for their coffee and macademia processing. XelaTeco also supplies several local NGOs with biodigesters and water purifiers for nearby communities. In this time, AIDG has also conducted multiple outreach projects, ranging from biodigester to solar water heater installations for local school programs and orphanages.

In addition to these accomplishments, AIDG successfully launched an education program that attracts some of the brightest students from schools like MIT and Stanford and started TecoTours, our service learning outreach program. Within the pages that follow, you will read about all these projects and more. A major goal for us in 2007 is to strengthen XelaTeco’s position in Guatemala and to prepare AIDG for global expansion. Specifically, we want to improve the business incubation model so that this idea can spread to other countries, offering more people access to the technologies that will improve their lives.

As I write this letter from Guatemala, I wanted to thank all of our friends, colleagues and supporters who have made the past two years so successful. We couldn’t have gotten this far without you. 

Peter C. Haas