The Evolution of Our Sustainable Process

Bridgett Perry, CITTI Project Director, describes how the process of our sustainable model has grown.

It is an amazing experience to watch a dream spout from seed, take root, and blossom before our eyes. This being our third year in Ecuador, working with the same communities, we have shared cultures, built trust, and broke bread. I marvel at the compassionate team we have assembled and at the generous hearts and minds of the people we have met. Together, a process has evolved, simplistic, meaningful, and sustainable. As Mercedes, director of Asoplejicat, eloquently put it...¨From simples things, great things are made.¨

The making of these great things from simple, affordable, local materials, has been a wondrous experience. We have witnessed people increase their independence with 25 cents worth of materials. We have seen teachers create their own classroom activities from shoeboxes and plastic cups, popsicle sticks, coat hangers, and duct tape. From informational exchange, we learned of each other’s successes and challenges. We shared ideas with models created from store bought materials, dumpsters, and scrape piles. And the beauty is that they took those models and not only replicated, them but made them their own, changing, tweaking and tuning their creations.

An essential step that emerged in our process has been how the leaders have turned around and trained others. They have taken their own unique models and trained their own community to replicate, learn, and strategize. They have passed on techniques and skills, expanding their own knowledge in the process. Then, taking examples of their tools they have displayed them for colleagues, families, and friends.

This is the essence of a sustainable model.