CREATING OPEN MINDS

CREATING OPEN MINDS

Mexico ranks last in education among the 35 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Mexican children leave school with the worst literacy, math and science skills, with around half failing to meet the most basic standards. The poorest children in Vietnam outperform the most privileged in Mexico.

Children in indigenous schools have the lowest achievement levels, with more than 80% falling below the basic level needed to progress. One in four indigenous 15-year-olds cannot read or write – four times the general illiteracy rate. Poverty within indigenous communities is rising. Where people live in the poorest conditions, the education always arrives last and is the poorest in every aspect – funding, materials, preparation of teachers – which means inequality is perpetuated. Attendance at the school is dismal, and drop-out rates are high.

Mexico’s teachers are hardly equipped to educate those who already speak a different language: 1.3 million schoolchildren around the country use indigenous dialects as their first – and sometimes only – language. Only 60% of the 55,000 teachers who do speak an indigenous language are in classrooms where students speak the same one.

The education budget was recently slashed by 11.4% – the lowest since 2011 – as the economy reels from US president Donald Trump’s threats to build a border wall and rip up trade agreements. The textbook budget has been cut by a third; teacher training and equality programs reduced by 40% each; and funds to get children digitally connected have been cut completely.

Solar Panel Manufacturing

Solar Panel Manufacturing

Morgan Solar, based in Toronto, Ontario has developed a new solar panel that is ten times more efficient at harnessing solar power.

SimbaX, a silicon reduction technology for standard solar panels, which uses one-third the quantity of cells that go into typical solar panels. This dramatically reduces the bill of materials, which reduces costs. SimbaX uses Morgan Solar’s Simple Planar Optical Technology (SPOT) in an ultra-thin film made from simple commodity components that internally trap and redirects sunlight to convert it to electricity. The structures are thin, highly durable, versatile and very cost effective.

Our region is the perfect place to manufacture these new solar panels.

Hydroponics

Hydroponics

Hydroponics has the following advantages: Up to 90% more efficient use of water. Production increases 3 to 10 times in the same amount of space. Many crops can be produced twice as fast.

​Our region has numerous greenhouses using up vast areas of lands that could be better utilized using hydroponics. Water supply for irrigation is an important and problematic issue in our region. The solution is to grow plants in a vertical hydroponic environment.

Smokeless Clean Stoves

Smokeless Clean Stoves

Globally, nearly three billion people use solid fuels on traditional stoves or open fires for cooking and space heating. The Global Burden of
Disease Study 2010 estimates that exposure to smoke from cooking is the fourth worst risk factor for disease in developing countries. Based in
the country’s poorest rural states, the project makes efficient cook stoves affordable to low-income households, reducing fuel use by as much as
60% and reducing exposure to harmful indoor air pollution.

The high-quality, affordable plancha wood stoves which are sold by this project have been specifically designed to be locally appropriate for the communities in Mexico
and replace inefficient, traditional, three-stone fires. Exposure to cook stove smoke causes more premature deaths globally than malaria or tuberculosis and many more suffer
non-fatal illnesses. The stove burns firewood more effectively to reduce incomplete combustion and the subsequent indoor air pollution, which is mainly carbon monoxide
and particulate matter.