A project to manufacture housing materials for Colombians who lost homes in the recent mudslides has received an initial grant of $110,000 from the American Jewish World Service (AJWS), it was announced here.
“Through the Ladrillos por Colombia project AJWS will create a “brick factory’ utilizing low-cost local materials and small-scale technologies already familiar to rural Colombians,” said Lawrence Phillips, AJWS Chairman. Ladrillos por Colombia means “Bricks for Colombia.”
“This collaborative effort of AJWS, the Jewish community of Colombia and Israeli technicians, is designed to create a self-sustaining operation. It will be turned over to the survivors of the Armero mudslide, providing families with quality building materials, training, and new livelihoods,” said Philips.
The project, which will be located on land approved by geologists and the Colombian government, is expected to continue producing bricks after immediate needs are met. It will thus provide a long-term source of income for many of the affected families, the AJWS said.
AJWS is a Boston-based non-profit humanitarian organization, providing relief and development assistance to the needy peoples of Latin America, Africa, and Asia regardless of religious or ethnic background.
“Our goal of offering aid to the needy around the world is consistent with Jewish humanitarian values. We believe there is strong support in the American Jewish community for an organization whose purpose is to fight the causes of hunger and poverty wherever they are found,” said Laurence Simon, AJWS president.
The American Jewish World Service was founded in the spring of 1985. The organization’s initial project was an airlift of sixteen tons of medicines to Mozambique in September. The goal of the airlift was to relieve shortages of supplies needed to treat malnutrition, dehydration, war wounds and other prevalent ailments. Other current projects include primary health care and small-scale agriculture projects in Sri Lanka, reconstruction work in Mexico City, and an IV production project in Mozambique.
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