When Hurricane Lili tore through Cuba in October of this year, the municipality of Sagua Grande was prepared to confront the aftermath. The action strategy developed by CIDEM consists of creating local conditions for the application of building technologies and production of materials in the affected area, conveniently adapted to the specific regional characteristics. Ecomaterials production, therefore, becomes a basic condition to begin any reconstruction action based upon sustainable criteria, since it allows the creation of local bases to eliminate external dependencies for building materials supply.

FENAVIP director appointed vice-minister of housing - Colombia
At the beginning of November a director of EcoSouth´s Columbian partner FENAVIP, Josue Gastelbondo Amaya, was named vice-minister of housing by the president of Columbia. This appointment comes as a result of his efforts at FENAVIP, which specializes in low-cost housing construction with base organizations. In all its housing projects FENAVIP uses MCR for the roofs and in some projects alternative cement (CP40) in cement blocks and paving stones. FENAVIP hopes that this high-level appointment will open doors to a wider dissemination of the ecomaterials concept in

Study visit to housing projects in Ecuador and Colombia - Ecuador
In November a study visit to Guayaquil and Bogota exposed other EcoSouth colleagues to highly-developed commercial endeavors in both the social housing and upmarket sectors. These projects incorporate ecomaterials into their buildings in an efficient and effective manner and, thus, management aspects became a major focus of the visit. The visiting construction professionals were able to expand their knowledge with an aim to making their own projects and businesses more economically efficient.