chile – Generation Change

Young Chilean architect builds houses to last

mueserk — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 12:42:01 +0000

Earlier this year, fires tore through Chile’s port city of Valparaíso, killing 15 people and burning nearly 3,000 homes to the ground.

Since then, 28-year-old Carolina Moraes, an architect who specializes in social and sustainable housing, has been volunteering her time to help some of the families who lost their homes.

She’s not settling for short-term solutions, but is teaching the locals to help themselves.

Listen to the report by Eilís O’Neill from Valparaíso, Chile:

http://blogs.dw.com/generationchange/files/Chilean-architect-teaches-locals-to-build-sustainable-homes.mp3

Carolina Moraes is building houses that are better than what local residents live in before the fire (Photo: E. O’Neill)

Cerro Merced is a hill in Valparaíso that was hit particularly hard by the fire (Photo: E. O’Neill)

Many of the families affected by the fire had no legal title to the land they were living on (Photo: E. O’Neill)

Adobe and stucco are essential materials for volunteer Per Johansson (Photo: E. O’Neill)

Chilean teen fights homophobia with education

mueserk — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 10:18:25 +0000

Chile is one of South America’s most socially conservative countries, and discrimination against gays and lesbians is still widespread. In March 2012, 24-year-old Daniel Zamudio was tortured and murdered after his attackers learned of his sexual orientation. And, just this January, 22-year-old Esteban Parada died in a similar attack in downtown Santiago.

Alberto Cid, 18, is determined to turn the tide and put an end to bullying and discrimination in Chile. The answer, he says, lies in education. First, he became president of Movilh Joven, a gay rights activist group that targets youth, and now he’s focused on getting sexual diversity into the local schools’ curricula.

Listen to the report by Eilís O’Neill in Santiago, Chile:

http://blogs.dw.com/generationchange/files/Chilean-teen-fights-homophobia-with-education.mp3

Alberto Cid is first tackling his own high school in Santiago, where he is a member of the student government and the LGBT student group (Photo: E. O’Neill)

Alberto attends Barros Borgoño High School in Santiago (Photo: E. O’Neill)

Hope for Chile’s poorest

mueserk — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 13:32:28 +0000

Emil Schneider, a 19-year-old from Germany, was shocked to see with his own eyes that the poorest of the poor in Chile are not having their basic needs met. That’s why he signed up as a volunteer with TECHO, an organization that works with at-risks family in the slums.

Tamara Ramos, a coordinator for TECHO says the group’s aim is to empower those living in extreme poverty to find jobs so that they can reach long-term financial stability.

Listen to the report by Francisco Tapia in Vina Del Mar, Chile:

Hope for Chile’s poorest

Emil says he was shocked to see basic human needs not being met on the streets in Chile’s slums (Photo: Emil Schneider)

Tamara Ramos coordinates the TECHO team (Photo: Tamara Ramos)

Village children planting a future

lomasc — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:59:47 +0000

High up in the Andes, a new climate project called “Valley and earth for our children” is teaching young village children how to grow plants and get to know Mother Nature and how to better protect her. The young woman who founded the program in northern Chile allocates each child with his or her own small plot of land on which they have free rein to plant and design as they see fit. The young climate campaigners are already planting trees for their next big project – a forest for children. Watch this DW video to see how.