One by one river polluting latrines in Cap Haitien's shantytown Shada are being replaced with ecological toilets

Cap-Haitien April 23, 2008 - "Are you going to help us or just do studies like all the other blancs?" was the reproachful question that a Shada resident asked Peter Haas, AIDG's Executive Director, on his first visit to the shantytown in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. Haas was there to determine how best AIDG's initial projects on sanitation and energy production in Haiti could benefit Shada. 

It was a powerful rebuke meant to convey that the community was frustrated and wanted quicker action on sanitation issues from NGOs and charitable groups. With this stated question as a call to arms, AIDG and its community partner, SOIL, recently finished 2 dry-composting community latrines in Shada. Together these systems, also known as ecosan (ecological sanitation) or urine-diverting toilets, now serve approximately 400 residents.

Energy

Village-Scale renewable energy in Guatemala. AIDG & XelaTeco provided over 150 families (700+ people) in rural Guatemala with renewable electricity. A micro-hydroelectric system installed for the Chantel and La Fe communities saved them $2000/month in fuel costs during their coffee harvest. Our total installed capacity as of December 2007 is 91 kW.

Helping families breathe easier with cleaner burning stoves. We installed and upgraded 20 biodigesters and improved stoves for rural families in Guatemala. Our higher efficiency stoves cut indoor air pollution, a major ‘killer in the kitchen’.

AIDG Stoves: participatory design at work. Through active community outreach and R&D, AIDG developed stove designs that use 50-60% less wood than a traditional wood fire. For families that buy their fuel wood, this could save them 14-30% of their monthly income.

Sanitation

Waste-to-energy: Home Grown Power in Cap-Haitien. We opened a new office in Cap Haitien, Haiti. In partnership with Oxfam, SOL/SOIL, and the Mayor’s offices of Cap Haitien and Milot, we are starting a project to create a municipal-scale waste-to-energy plant. When online, the plant will serve an estimated 10,000 people, improving sanitation and providing a valuable energy source.

Improving sanitation in Cap Haitien. Working with our community partners, we have already completed a dry composting latrine to serve 300 people in Petite Anse, a neighborhood of Cap Haitien. Building new public latrines and upgrading existing ones will give many more of the city’s residents access to basic bathroom facilities as well as protect groundwater from contamination.

Water

Hot showers for cold kids. As an outreach project for a childcare center in Guatemala, we installed a solar water heater to improve hygiene for the center’s 45 children, particularly during the cold winter months.

Affordable solar water heater. AIDG partnered with the University of California - Berkeley to develop a low-cost solar water heater for under $100. Commercial systems cost $400-$1000.

Water testing. We collaborated with MIT’s D-lab for water quality testing training for XelaTeco. Lack of access to safe drinking water is a major cause of death for children under five.

XelaTeco steps in a crucial time to help La Fe and Chantel communities with a micro-hydroelectric repair.

Processing coffee from cherry to bean uses considerable energy. XelaTeco helped 2 coffee- producing communities save $1000's in eletricty and diesel.

Quetzaltenango, Guatemala - “Not again” is what the residents of La Fe and Chantel communities thought when their micro-hydroelectric system broke down for the umpteenth time this past June. Before Hurricane Stan in 2005, these 110 families had been one of the luckier campesino communities. When they obtained the rubber and coffee plantations with the help of the Land Trust Fund (Fondo de Tierra), they also inherited a functional 75 kilowatt hydroelectric system that could power their coffee processing.

Unfortunately the devastation of Stan nearly destroyed the hydroelectric machinery. The community managed to scrape together enough cash to hire a local machine shop for repairs, but the repair team’s lack of expertise with hydro systems resulted in a shoddy fix. In the next year and a half, the system had to be overhauled four additional times to keep it running.

Dear Friends of AIDG,

We have great news! We're happy to annouce that we've received 2 matching grant opportunities from donors in our community who want to help us kickstart the Haiti expansion.

One couple who cares deeply about Haiti will donate $37,000 if we can raise another $37,000. To help get the ball rolling, another couple has generously pledged $2,000 if 40 people donate $100 each. Could you be one the 40?

Because of these wonderful offers of support, we'll be extending the AIDG 300 campaign through the fall. Any gift you make today will be doubled and put to work helping us get our new program started in Haiti. If we all pitch in a little bit, we can get things rolling in Cap Haitien quickly. http://www.aidg.org/donate.htm

I'll be heading to Haiti in early September to move forward on a sanitation business. Our newest addition to AIDG, Sarah Brownell, is already there conducting assessments and looking for stakeholders and partners. Our progress on the ground really depends on the donations that come in over the next few weeks. You've seen what we've done these past 2 years with our programs in Guatemala. To build something as strong in Haiti, we need support from our community. We need your help.

If you've been thinking of giving to AIDG, but haven’t already, please donate today: http://www.aidg.org/donate.htm. If you've already given, thank you, thank you, thank you.

This is a very crucial period. We have a lot of hard, yet exhilirating work ahead and we really appreciate you taking this journey with us.

Sincerely,

Pete

Peter C. Haas

AIDG takes first steps to establishing new incubated business in Cap Haitien, the second largest city in Haiti

Weston, MA – When Peter Haas and Catherine Lainé of AIDG visited Cap Haitien last August, they saw a lot of potential business opportunities in Haiti’s second largest city.

“There were many basic services that the population needs, which they just are not getting access to,” says Haas, AIDG’s Executive Director. “A properly placed business could do much to address some of these issues and make a decent profit at the same time”.

WEdia Benefit Show

Date: Friday, May, 18th, 2007
Time: 8:00pm - late
Location: Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, 11217
Price: $20 before 11pm, $10 after 11pm.

Description:

Help send WEdia to Guatemala and Nicaragua! This summer, WEdia will send award-winning volunteer filmmakers to document the work of AIDG (Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group), Maya Pedal, Kiva, Bikes Not Bombs and Pro Mujer. They are trying to raise the necessary funds with a benefit show.

Watch Episode 6 of PBS' Design Squad online. AIDG's own Executive Director, Pete Haas, makes a cameo appearance as a beta-prototyper and judge  in the episode, entitled "A Collective Collaboration".

Dear Friend of AIDG,

I hope you had a happy Earthday last week. Let me begin by saying thanks so much for your support. Because of you, AIDG has been able to provide access to sanitation, clean water and electricity to rural villages in Guatemala. This type of infrastructure development is essential to alleviate poverty and improve health. You’re helping us make this happen.

This month, we’re kicking off our “AIDG 300” campaign, but we very much need your help to get it off the ground.

We’re trying to raise $300,000 by August 15^th (XelaTeco’s 2nd birthday) to fund three key projects: 

1. We want to take AIDG’s business incubation model to the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
   Unfortunately, we can’t move beyond the planning stages until we have the necessary funds: $92,000.  Your continued support can enable us to deliver life-changing solutions to the rural poor in Haiti and the DR, as you helped us do in Guatemala.
   
   
   
   
   
2. XelaTeco, our first incubated shop, desperately needs a truck.
   We’re looking at buying a used truck for $7500. Currently, our employees travel around the Guatemalan countryside on public or rented transportation, on foot or bicycle. A truck would let your donations go a lot further by allowing us to deliver projects faster and more efficiently. This has become essential due to the increased demand for XelaTeco’s products from local NGOs and community groups.
   
   
   
   
   
3. AIDG has done a great deal in the past two years on only $150,000. Learn about what you've helped us do in 2005-2006. We’ve been able to do all these largely because of our dedicated all-volunteer staff. To continue providing clean and green technologies to rural communities and to grow AIDG into a sustainable organization with full-time staff, we need to find support at a level that goes beyond anything we’ve had before. We have to raise an additional $200,000 in 2007. Can you help us? http://www.aidg.org/donate.htm
   
   
   
   
   
   

Your donation will allow us to promote affordable environmentally sound technologies in developing countries. Please know that any size gift would be a tremendous help. Thanks for all that you’ve done so far. Together, we’re making a difference in the lives of many families.

Sincerely,

Peter Haas

Executive Director

P.S.  We’ve already raised $42,000 this year. Help us get to $300,000 by August 15th.

P.P.S. If you’ve donated already, THANKS!! We really appreciate your commitment.

XelaTeco spreads green and renewable technology in rural Guatemala

For XelaTeco, 2006 was a very exciting year. AIDG's first incubated business completed a UN-funded micro-hydroelectric installation in Guatemala that is now providing 200 people with electricity in their homes for the first time. XT hosted eleven very talented students as part of the inaugural year of AIDG's internship program. It also made and reinforced partnerships with development NGOs in the Quetzaltenango area to supply appropriate technologies to local communities.

In 2007, XelaTeco renews its commitment to provide affordable electricity, sanitation and clean water to the rural poor. The one-year-old company strives to do this and help reduce the human impact on the environment at the same time. How?  By focusing on clean and green technologies such as biodigesters, hydraulic water pumps and water filters.

Biodigesters turn animal waste into biogas and fertilizer, leaving the water table free from fecal contamination and the air smelling sweeter. These machines also help keep methane, a greenhouse gas more potent that carbon dioxide, out of the atmosphere. XelaTeco's family-sized biogas systems produce 3-4 hours of fuel per day allowing users to cut their fuel costs. The company's low-maintenance water pumps are inexpensive and handily operate without electricity or diesel. They can be used for irrigation or for moving water to higher ground or water towers. Their water filters remove particulate matter and harmful microorganisms from polluted water preventing disease and improving health.  XelaTeco products still in development include solar water heaters and LED lighting.

For the immediate future, XelaTeco intends to concentrate on simple products such as the ones listed above rather than complex systems like the micro-hydroelectric installation at Comunidad Nueva Alianza. One major reason for this decision is that the demand for the simpler technologies is higher, manufacturing time is lower and maintenance is easier.

One of XelaTeco's major goals for this year is to continue improving its product line to make it cheaper and better for its clientèle: individuals, communities and local development agencies.  Infrastructure development  groups are turning out to be a more promising customer base than initially expected. For many, XelaTeco's products enable them to fulfill their missions and get more for their buck or in this case Quetzal. XelaTeco is strengthening its relationships with local non-profits like CEDEPEM and CDRO and has short-term contracts to produce biodigesters and water purifiers for communities served by these organizations. A big (and welcome) challenge for XelaTeco will be meeting the demand for products that its early successes have generated.

Overall 2007 looks to be as promising a year as 2006 for this green provider. If XelaTeco continues to progress at the same rate, it will light the way for many underserved communities in Guatemala.

Weston, MA - February 11, 2007 - The Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG) today announced the selection of ten exceptional undergraduate and graduate students for its spring and summer internship programs in Guatemala.

The mission of the internship program is to give students direct hands on experience in international development and appropriate technology implementation in developing countries.  Peter Haas, the AIDG's Executive Director stated "The program also provides an opportunity for the transfer of technical knowledge between workers in our incubated business and university students".

The interns will primarily be developing prototypes of appropriate technologies. Successful and locally demanded technologies will then be manufactured and sold by AIDG's incubated business, XelaTeco.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:

Catherine Laine
claine@aidg.org
617-378-2605

 AIDG and XelaTeco to be featured on NPR's "Day to Day"

 Weston, MA - AIDG and XelaTeco will be featured on NPR's national and international news program, "Day to Day", on Thursday February 1, 2007. The piece recorded in November by tech journalist, Xeni Jardin, is part of a 5-part series on Guatemala.

Check your local NPR station for listings or listen online after 4:00PM Thursday at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7105046.

  For more information on the AIDG, go to www.aidg.org , email info@aidg.org, or call 1-800-401-3860.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:

Catherine Laine
claine@aidg.org
617-378-2605

Appropriate technology innovators bring renewable energy to a rural community in Guatemala.

Quetzaltenango, Guatemala - January 5, 2007 - The Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG) and its first incubated business, XelaTeco, completed a micro-hydroelectric project in El Palmar, Guatemala last month that is providing 40 families (roughly 200 people) with electricity in their homes for the first time.

Peter Haas, the Executive Director of the AIDG, is to appear on WGBH's Design Squad, a new  reality competition for teens. The show's goal is to help kids develop a lifelong interest in math, science, and engineering by showing them the weird and wonderful things engineering can accomplish.

Over 13 episodes, eight teenagers compete to design and build fantastic, whimsical, and fully operational machines for real clients. Teams, and team members, are scored for their ability to think outside the box and meet (or surpass) the demands of the challenge at hand. In the final episode, the top two scorers battle for the Grand Prize—a $10,000 college scholarship from the Intel®Foundation to study science, engineering, math, or technology.

  The episode with Haas involves the creation of a simple peanut butter maker for MIT professor Amy Smith and Haitian community activist Gerthy Lahens.  Peter will help judge the competition as well as build a more durable version of the winning design. The end product will be presented to a women's peanut butter cooperative in Petite-Anse, Haiti. This episode is particularly special because it is the only one in the series that illustrates how engineering can have a wider global impact and be used to address important social issues.

   Design Squad was filmed in and around Cambridge, MA (with some footage taken in Haiti) in summer 2006 and will premiere on PBS in February 2007.

 Recipients begin internships in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala this summer 

The AIDG announced the selection of eleven undergraduate and graduate students that will participate in the first year of its Internship Program.

The AIDG's Internships are designed to give students direct hands on experience in international development and appropriate technology implementation in developing countries. Peter Haas, the AIDG's Executive Director stated that "The program also provides an opportunity for the transfer of technical knowledge between workers in our incubated business and university students".