On April 16th a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Bahia de Caraquez and other coastal cities of Ecuador. GSE's local 7 person staff team have worked hard since then providing emergency relief and shelter to the most vulnerable members of Bahia and surrounding communities. The year round work of this team is environmental education and to reforest native trees. To date we have planted more than 60,000 trees. After the tragedy of the earthquake and the catastrophic damage, we have shifted to focus on bamboo building, counseling and play therapy for children in refugee camps. We also continue to maintain 36,000 trees planted in the past 2 years.

Bamboo construction is an excellent solution because guadua bamboo is native to the most destroyed region, it is an ecologically sustainable material, and with the proper training and treatment it can be a long lasting, beautiful and extremely cheap building material. Our demonstration shelter and house building project involves training local builders, collaboration for sustainable harvest with people in the country side and skills training for teenagers.

Please help fund our relief work and thank you for your support!