Sustainability Projects

Thanks to a grant from Davis Projects for Peace in 2016, we were able to move our volunteer house 
to a small farm in the community of Muñoz. The grant was to set up something that would teach children and community members about agriculture. At the farm, we have a garden full of local fruits and vegetables. We have a greenhouse for starting small plants. We have animals that represent the five groups of vertebrates: turtles (reptiles), salamanders and frogs (anphibians), goldfish (fish), chickens, lovebirds, and parakeets (birds), and a dog, donkey, horse, and pigs (mammals). 

We bus our students to the farm a few times a year and lead them in lessons on sustainability and agriculture, as well as other topics such as creative writing, learning to follow a map, etc. We lead trips with our students from our two schools, as well as students from the public school in Muñoz. There kids participate in activities such as "Artificial vs. Natural", learning about the difference between artificial waste and natural waste and how to properly dispose of the natural in the compost and the artificial in the trash can or the recycling bin. 

Project Esperanza has also been developing sustainable recycling

searching for sea glass

projects in Munoz (as well as our other site in Padre Granero). We've been successful in getting the kids excited and onboard with recycling. After enough recyclables have been gathered, the "best recyclers" have gotten to travel to Santiago to a recycling center that buys the recycalbes and remakes them. It has become a small sustainable source of income. With education, activities, and communal days of gathering recyclables, we hope to bring recycling as a process to Muñoz to clean up the area as well as be a sustainable source of income!

Planting seeds in recycled bottles

We have taken trips with students and parents to the beach to collect sea glass. Upon return, we lead a workshop teaching them how to make various types of jewelry out of the sea glass. We also make Christmas ornaments. We sell both of these products in our fair trade art shop.

Lastly, we also now have a separate pre-school building at the school with a fenced in yard area for gardening! 

Drilling holes in sea glass

Our horse Rosita