X-Ray 10: Mud mud glorious mud

X-Ray 10: Sacha, Matt, Nelson, Jaap, Emily, Emilie, Amy, Stella, Ella, George, Ben, Dom, Sally, Natasha, Dav and Lilly

X-Ray 10 have been achieving great things on project in La Arenilla and have fully integrated into community life. On Friday 8 they celebrated International Women's Day and had an incredible afternoon where they decorated the community centre with crepe paper and balloons and all of the community attended a coffee morning with cakes made by all of the families. The Don's, not the women as usual, made the coffee for everyone and David, the community leader and host family of our PMs Sally, Dav and Sacha, read a passage from the bible and then gave a heartfelt speech about gender equality and his hopes and aspirations for his daughters, the next generations and for all of those women in the village. La Arenilla had never celebrated IWD before but will now annually host it in honour of Raleigh and the women of their community who work tirelessly to support their families.

X-Ray 10 on their project in Miraflor

All great projects start with foundations; how else were the pyramids and skyscrapers of our generation made. While Xray 10 may be several weeks late in laying the physical foundations of houses and suchlike, we have been building the foundations for a structure that no wind or earth can ever assail; friendship, eternal and true.

By helping build houses and other  buildings for the community, it is the specific hope of Xray 10 that we may one day be remembered by the people of Miraflor as but one cog in the machine that bettered their lives. Through collecting old man’s beard (con creepy crawlies), gathering and producing mud (of which 30% is used to dirty our t-shirts, play mudball or experiment with new ‘looks’) and building houses (which makes most of us feel like kids again) we have completed several extra layers on the majority of the new houses, which is great.

Matt, today's blogger with his newly designed mud shirt.

Holly from roadtrip and Emilie making adobe bricks, made from natural sustainable materials they are a mixture of old man's beard and mud.

But all this would be for nought without becoming firm friends with the locals; from simple sentences and oft comical hand signalling (me encanta los chicas en Englyse being one) to learning about their lives, families and hopes for the future. It is by doing such things that Raleigh has flourished into such an organisation.

Sacha testing the shower

As part of Women’s Day, we have also been interviewing the local women (and a few men, besides) as to their role in the community, their education and their hopes for their children. So far, all have been incredibly positive, and while some women have received little education, the majority having received equal education to their husbands, while their children have been becoming increasingly educated, thus opening more opportunities. One such example came from Don Alejandro’s wife, Maximelia, whose eldest daughter has finished college and works in a bank. Such examples reflect on how far Nicaragua has come in recent years.

The houses are coming on really well - X-Ray 10 have made incredible progress.

Today's blog was written by X-Ray 10's Matt Heathcote

The Raleigh Project Framework: Ensuring Sustainability

Raleigh International are privileged to run projects throughout Costa Rica and Nicaragua; working alongside communities and local people in beautiful areas which are often incredibly remote. Ensuring sustainability is incredibly important for Raleigh and to achieve this, the charity work within a framework of objectives and outcomes specific to every project. 

Raleigh CR&N have worked in many communities, completing incredible projects which have benefited many people throughout the two countries. Volunteers will continuing this work during Expedition 13A, undertaking a number of projects including building a pre-school, a health post and helping create new trails in a national park. However the infrastructure or hardware is not the ultimate aim –the project framework ensures the best outcomes for every person the project touches.

Working closely with the community

When people think Raleigh they may well think digging, building or installing infrastructure but that is only one part of the story, there are additional activities and outcomes that Raleigh and the communities we work with hope to achieve. Here’s how we frame sustainable projects:

Peer to peer education: trying to support and mobilize the communities’ younger demographic for instance, engaging them in the project and helping to achieve the project aims which could include working with the communities’ youth groups.

Action Research: all of the communities want to understand the issues they are confronting better. With the information gathered by Raleigh’s project teams they’re better able to understand and achieve the best results. So if related to a water project, where are all the houses?  What is the situation we are facing with regards to water? How much water do we need? All these questions need to be thought about if the projects are going to be successful and enduring.

By undertaking baseline surveys, learning about the communities i.e. the population, the situation surrounding health and basic sanitation and their attitudes towards the environment we can begin to understand their main objectives and we can work with them more effectively. Alongside this there is community mapping: where do people live, what resources they have? Also research into the community’s history; what has happened in the past, what were their ancestors like, are certain practices actually traditions based on their heritage?

We are undertaking a preschool build in San Ramon, Searez, but how are children educated now in the community? Our project teams will be researching this and other issues

Through this information project teams are better informed to undertake a specific project and can maximize the returns with the community.

Awareness Raising: in terms of a water project, understanding that a healthy forest surrounding the water tanks is going to be to the benefit of the long-term sustainability of the water project. Activities like an ‘Action Day’ where all members of the community are included and promotion of reforestation would be explained. Lack of education and how that will impact their children moving forward, all groups during their project will do this.

Resource Development: manuals and instructions created by the project teams which explain exactly to manage the infrastructure, create a strategy for the year i.e. in these months you need to clean the tanks or when building inspections should occur on these dates. Or it will be a manual for the permanent Raleigh country staff so they know what issues may crop up and how to fix x, y and z.

Training: supporting communities and partners by helping them set up committees to ensure management of the projects so that once the Raleigh Teams have left the specific communities the project won’t fall apart. It is an important part of the work Raleigh do and ensuring the sustainability of it’s projects.

The infrastructure is important, but the framework ensures the best outcome for all

The issues Raleigh face with their project partners and communities they work with are complex and difficult to help solve, but by understanding and following this framework it goes some way to ensuring the sustainability of the projects Raleigh International undertake and hopefully benefitting every stakeholder.

It’s the little things we do – environmentally friendly living

By the year 2050 there will be 9 billion people in the world and unless we make serious changes there will not be enough resources for everyone, a scary prospect.

Alongside environmental projects that are undertaken, which we will be discussing further in the coming weeks,  Raleigh International believes in living sustainably – there are many things we can do, both here in Costa Rica & Nicaragua but also at home, that will make a difference. Especially if we can positively influence our friends and family to do the same. 

Here at Raleigh CR&N Fieldbase in Turrialba we do a few little things to lessen our footprint on the world. Currently we annually recycle:

• -       3,600 glass and 5000 plastic bottles
• -       1,000kg of cardboard and paper – equivalent to 10 trees every year
• -       10,000 tin cans – saves using 137,000 litres of water during manufacture of new tins.

The recycling area

We also:

• -       Aim to convert 1,200k of organic waste into fertilizer and gas using our composter and biogas unit. This reduces the amount of methane released and helps reduce global warming. This is equivalent to 3.2 less vehicles on the road.

• -       Use ‘bags for life’ to minimize oil use and reduce the amount of non-biodegradable items in landfills
• -       Turn off our 10 computers each night – equivalent annual energy saving of boiling a kettle for 7.5 years
• -       Fill vehicles and minimize journeys in order to use less fuel
• -       Turn off lights when not in use to conserve energy
• -       Limit showers to 5 minutes to conserve water – or do as we do and have cold ones, you won’t be in it for very long!
• -       Only eat meat once a week in order to reduce methane emissions and conserve fresh water
• -       Buy locally grown organic food to limit ‘food miles’ and chemical pollution. Which includes our herb garden just a few steps from the kitchen at Fieldbase.

Fieldbase grown chillies

• -       We also walk to work – a short 100m up the drive – we think it might be one of the best commutes in the world

Pauline commuting

Is there anything else you would like to see us do at Fieldbase to help lower our footprint on the world? How do you live sustainably?