Last week, I had the opportunity to go down to Cap Hatien, Haiti and check in on one of the BP714 machines that we manufactured last year. I had a great visit and thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the great things the customer is doing with compressed earth blocks! The organization is called Welcome Home Haiti (www.welcomehomehaiti.com), and they have built 130 beautiful CEB homes so far!
They had produced about 100,000 blocks with the BP714 they're using now, so I helped them perform some of the 100,000-block maintenance actions and got the machine running like a clock again, producing over 1,000 blocks per day!
You can check out WHH's block-making operation here:
The work WHH is doing in Cap Haitien is so invaluable to the community. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere...80% of its citizens live in abject poverty. Not only has WHH created 10 jobs with their CEB operation, they are now completing one CEB home for a needy family each week in Cap Haitien :) The CEB plant is especially valuable because decent building materials are not readily available on the island. With their BP714 machine, WHH and crew are able to produce enough fire proof, hurricane proof, and earthquake proof CEBs to build a house every week.
It was very uplifting to see all the great things that can be done with one of our machines. We at AECT are excited to follow Welcome Home Haiti's progress...we can't wait to see what they do next! The visit wouldn't have been complete without handing out some AECT and Runge Runge Earthen Eco Lodge gear :)
I would definitely recommend checking out what Welcome Home Haiti is doing for the local community there in Cap Haitien. You can read more about their non-profit organization here: www.welcomehomehaiti.com
As always, thank you for your interest in AECT!
Cheers,
Ryan Runge
President
AECT
