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This year, our mentor Dr. Roz Iasillo and 11 students at McAuley along with some students from Thornridge High School have started a humanitarian project for a small town in rural Haiti: Pichon. Our goal is to donate a solar-powered biodiesel processor to a school in Pichon that has no electricity or running water.

We as a team have begun designing and constructing this processor, which not only will allow for the lowering of greenhouse gasses by providing a way to make a great fuel, biodiesel; it will also run on solar power, making it doubly eco-friendly. Faced with many ecological problems, Haiti needs our help. Most of Haiti has been ravaged by deforestation, because wood is Haiti’s main source of fuel, especially in rural areas. Deforestation, in turn, causes soil erosion, making a serious problem larger. Soil in Haiti is left stripped of its trees—unprotected and vulnerable to being washed away.  However, Jatropha, a local shrub, may prove to be Haiti’s remedy. This shrub yields many seeds that can be crushed to provide “seed oil”.  This oil can then be converted into biodiesel using our solar-powered biodiesel processor. After biodiesel is processed from the Jatropha seeds, glycerin remains as a by-product. It turns out that glycerin can be used as fertilizer to rejuvenate the soil! In the long run, our project has the potential to turn Haiti’s ecological statistics around.

Besides bettering Haiti’s ecology, our project will have a huge impact on the lifestyles of Haitians. They, too, need our help. Because our processor runs on solar power, excess solar energy can illuminate students attending the local school in Pichon. Literally. This school has no access to electricity, and the excess energy from the solar panels may provide electricity for their school and even offer them the opportunity to learn with computers. The fruits of our efforts may even vitalize Haiti’s economy by creating a new biodiesel market. By simply educating the people in Haiti about harnessing the power of their native plants, and providing the means to start processing biodiesel, we can start a domino effect of progress for Haitians. As a student at McAuley, I must say that it is a privilege to be working on a project having so much potential to help both the ecology and the way of life of people in another country.

However, we can’t bring this project to life without help. Various organizations, schools, and businesses, have already agreed to help us. Michigan State University, University of Illinois, Engineers Without Borders, and Education for Prosperity have decided to work in conjunction with us. A partnership with the students at Thornridge HS has also been established to help us with this project and to show us how to make a biodiesel system.  We also have plans to work with Queen of Martyrs, a local middle school. The Home Depot in Oak Lawn, FSI Industries, Den Hartog Industries, Jim Murphy, president of Carbon Green, Huen Electric, and Meyer Drum have already helped us with donations.

We would greatly appreciate any donations you can make towards our project so we can be closer to helping the Haitian community. Our project is a fabulous opportunity for us students to gain experience working on an international community service project and to work with colleges and students from other schools. Projects like these build character in us students, will remember them for the rest of their lives. We hope you can help us reach out to the town and school of Pichon, Haiti.  Together, we can make a global impact on the environment and help people in need. I invite you to consider this project as a great opportunity to help our club, help the students in Pichon, help the town of Pichon itself, and help us make a difference on an international level by “ Helping the world One drop of Oil and CO molecule at a time.”

            If you have any questions please feel free to contact our mentor Dr. Roz Iasillo at riasillo@mothermcauley.org or 773-881-6544. I am also enclosing a couple of pictures of our project so far.  We could really use your help to help the world.  Thank you for your time!

 

Sincerely,

Ana Vazquez

Eco-Macs Club

 

 

 

 

 

This is the school we intend to send the solar-powered biodiesel processor:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related Links:

• Southtown Economist
• Mother McAuley's Biodiesel: Operation Haiti's website
• Youtube Channel
• Photobucket Albums

* YouTube video views since this project was published at TrueHero.com