Vivienda Pasiva: Plan of Action

Vivienda Pasiva: Plan of Action

¨El pastelero a sus pasteles¨ is a typical Chilean saying. It translates to ¨the baker goes to the cakes¨ and means that everyone has to do the job that they are good at and no other. Christian is good at many things. For our business he creates and updates the website, he designs and even knows how to build things. My talents are far fewer; however I am exceptionally good at keeping things organized. When the earthquake hit, we spent a lot of time thinking abut different ways that we could help. We donated to various organizations and looked into working serving food, but in the end that just didn´t seem like it was enough. Finally we though, well what we know how to do? We can design and build houses the heat with solar energy. We are in fact the only company that uses this technology in Chile. It then became very clear that we couldn´t just sit around watching the new when it was so clear we could help.

The first two questions that we had to answer is who do we help and how do we get the money to help them. Both questions are difficult to answer. There are so many people to help, how can we just pick a few families and leave the rest? Some homes that were destroyed will be rebuilt. New apartment building, homes that were built by a construction firm, and government housing will all be rebuilt at no cost to the families. The homes that will not receive aid are the homes of people of the lower middle class that slowly built the homes themselves over the years as they could afford to save money. Many of these homes were passed down through generation and were affected the most because the families couldn´t afford good modern building materials when they started to build.

Christian and I have talked to the local newspapers and city government to track down families in such situations. We have already found families that need our help in San Antonio, and today we are going to Valparaiso to meet more families. Once we meet the families, we study their home, particularly the land they own. Based on the size of the come and the terrain we come up with an estimate of how much it will cost to build them a safe house. Chile is a very mountains country; therefore the location of the house is very important. Although we are using the same design and the same materials, the cost will vary based on the land the family owns.

This brings us to question number two, where are we getting the money. Those of you that know us know our business is small. We are relying on mainly donation to construct the house. W are donating our time, and our knowhow, but for the actual construction materials, we need you! The Chilean government has no funds to give us, so we are looking for Chilean individuals and foreign organizations to help. Once we document the needs of the families, we see and get an estimate of the cost. Then via our website and our blog you will see exactly how much money we need to raise. We are going to feature various families on our website with various needs. Our goal is to help them all, but that depends on our funds. As long as we have the money to buy materials, we will keep working! We are off the Valpo. Look for our post tomorrow to learn about more families and ways to help.

For more information see our website www.viviendapasiva.cl