Causes: Community & Neighborhood Development, Economic Development
Mission: Hug It Forward is a grass-roots organization that facilitates education and awareness by empowering communities to build “bottle schools”. Bottle schools are schools built using “eco-bricks”: plastic bottles stuffed with inorganic trash. Entire communities come together to build more sustainable educational infrastructure for their future. Hug It Forward also strives to raise awareness in developed countries about trash, consumption and the power of community. This mission is equally important to us as facilitating the construction of bottle schools in developing countries.
Results: As of February, 2015 communities have completed 51 successful bottle school projects, at an average cost of $6,500 per classroom. In May 2012 we completed our first project outside Guatemala, in El Salvador.
Target demographics: Bottle schools provide children with a sense that they have the ability to shape their future and their world and helps them to think outside of the usual constraints of an impoverished lifestyle. Building a bottle school gives a community the confidence to choose and shape its own future.
Direct beneficiaries per year: in 2014,19 communities realized the dream of a safe, clean and comfortable school for generations to come
Geographic areas served: Central America
Programs: Bottle school construction. In 2014, hug it forward facilitated the construction of 17 schools in guatemala. Due to the method of construction, these schools are known as "bottle schools". Bottle schools are schools built using post-and-beam construction, with concrete columns and beams reinforced with rebar. The walls are filled with "eco-bricks" as insulation, made from plastic bottles stuffed with inorganic trash. Entire communities come together to build a more sustainable educational infrastructure that replaces dilapidated, unsafe and dangerously overcrowded schoolrooms, which are often made from adobe, corrugated metal, or cornstalks, with dirt floors. Before hug it forward issues any funding for materials, the community has to show full commitment to the project by collecting all of the 7-10,000 plastic bottles required for their new 2-3 classroom bottle school, and stuffing them with inorganic trash from their immediate environment. Teachers and village leaders are responsible for organizing the process of bottle collection and overseeing the volunteering of labor. The local municipality contributes by paying for skilled labor, and the ministry of education pays for all teachers, ensuring that these institutions also have ownership in a sustainable project.
environmental education program. In conjunction with bottle school projects, hug it forward facilitates an environmental education program for youth, working with all the communities that participate in a bottle school project. The program directly impacted 958 students in 8 communities in 2014.Children collect inorganic trash and create the "eco-bricks" that are needed to build a bottle school. They build their school with their own hands, giving them real ownership and pride in the realization of the project. Environmental education is an essential part of the bottle school process, ensuring that the project's impact will be sustainable and that communities remain free of trash long into the future. Through the environmental education program, children learn to understand the difference between organic and inorganic trash, along with the major risks of plastic pollution in their environment and in the world. The intention is to leave a lasting impact, helping to grow awareness of environmental sustainability for future generations.
Mission: Hug It Forward is a grass-roots organization that facilitates education and awareness by empowering communities to build “bottle schools”. Bottle schools are schools built using “eco-bricks”: plastic bottles stuffed with inorganic trash. Entire communities come together to build more sustainable educational infrastructure for their future. Hug It Forward also strives to raise awareness in developed countries about trash, consumption and the power of community. This mission is equally important to us as facilitating the construction of bottle schools in developing countries.
Results: As of February, 2015 communities have completed 51 successful bottle school projects, at an average cost of $6,500 per classroom. In May 2012 we completed our first project outside Guatemala, in El Salvador.
Target demographics: Bottle schools provide children with a sense that they have the ability to shape their future and their world and helps them to think outside of the usual constraints of an impoverished lifestyle. Building a bottle school gives a community the confidence to choose and shape its own future.
Direct beneficiaries per year: in 2014,19 communities realized the dream of a safe, clean and comfortable school for generations to come
Geographic areas served: Central America
Programs: Bottle school construction. In 2014, hug it forward facilitated the construction of 17 schools in guatemala. Due to the method of construction, these schools are known as "bottle schools". Bottle schools are schools built using post-and-beam construction, with concrete columns and beams reinforced with rebar. The walls are filled with "eco-bricks" as insulation, made from plastic bottles stuffed with inorganic trash. Entire communities come together to build a more sustainable educational infrastructure that replaces dilapidated, unsafe and dangerously overcrowded schoolrooms, which are often made from adobe, corrugated metal, or cornstalks, with dirt floors. Before hug it forward issues any funding for materials, the community has to show full commitment to the project by collecting all of the 7-10,000 plastic bottles required for their new 2-3 classroom bottle school, and stuffing them with inorganic trash from their immediate environment. Teachers and village leaders are responsible for organizing the process of bottle collection and overseeing the volunteering of labor. The local municipality contributes by paying for skilled labor, and the ministry of education pays for all teachers, ensuring that these institutions also have ownership in a sustainable project.
environmental education program. In conjunction with bottle school projects, hug it forward facilitates an environmental education program for youth, working with all the communities that participate in a bottle school project. The program directly impacted 958 students in 8 communities in 2014.Children collect inorganic trash and create the "eco-bricks" that are needed to build a bottle school. They build their school with their own hands, giving them real ownership and pride in the realization of the project. Environmental education is an essential part of the bottle school process, ensuring that the project's impact will be sustainable and that communities remain free of trash long into the future. Through the environmental education program, children learn to understand the difference between organic and inorganic trash, along with the major risks of plastic pollution in their environment and in the world. The intention is to leave a lasting impact, helping to grow awareness of environmental sustainability for future generations.
5404 W Canyon Trail Suite C, Littleton, CO 80127
760-282-4847
Economic Development
Littleton
