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Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Water for Humans Gazette - July 2018

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Water for Humans Gazette - July 2018 

La Mazateca GEN2.1 (cookstove) Update: 

Patent Filed in Mexico

Patent application filed on 20 June! This has been a long time in coming. What we thought would be a 9-month process has turned into a 2.5-year long adventure. We can now publically show and talk about the new "La Mazateca Gen2.1" design. 
GEN2.1_Charlie

Brand new Gen2.1 stove set up at our Board Chairman's (Charlie's) house


GEN2.1_CAD
Fred's CAD model


In 2014 we received an award from the Licensing Executive Society International in Geneva, Switzerland, for our work on innovating, culturally appropriate technology solutions. From that award the law firm of Becerril, Coca & Becerril, S.C. (https://www.bcb.com.mx/) in Mexico City has been providing us with pro-bono intellectual property representation. On June 20 they filed our patent application in Mexico. We want to thank Hector Elias Chagoya Cortes and Mariana González for their hard work in guiding us through and completing the process. We also must again thank Fred Nopwaskey for his continued support and his work to produce all the required drawings and figures of the design.

Because of NAFTA and the fact that we are a nonprofit, the patent filing fees were reduced by over 50%. The patent is for the molds and the construction process of making "La Mazateca Gen2.1". This patent protection will allow us to obtain 'no bid' contracts from the Mexican government to take La Mazateca to other parts of Mexico. In addition, the protections will enable us to license the technology with other NGO's and companies to provide potential revenue streams. The one challenge we now face is that this starts "the clock ticking". We now have six months to file for protections in other countries.

Molds Ready to Ship to Mexico

La Mazateca Gen2.1 is ready. The heart of the innovation is that the Gen2.1 is molded using vacuumed formed ABS (thermoplastic) molding tools. Fred Nopwaskey and Steve Gary have taken our basic idea and turned it into the "real thing". Because of the need to test and verify the design, the ABS molds are made at Sound Manufacturing in Kent, WA. Now that the design has been verified and the initial eight mold sets are complete, they are finally ready to ship to Mexico. 
GEN2.1_MoldSets

Mold sets with plywood forms


We spent several days packing up the eights sets of ABS molds for shipping to Mexico. Our challenge was to safely pack the molds in the most efficient manner to minimize the volume. It took us a couple of days but we were able to pack everything onto two pallets (one tall and one short). This was a HUGE improvement from our estimate of three or four pallets.
GEN2.1_Molds GEN2.1_Gaylord
GEN2.1_Pallets

Final pallets


Shipping Logistics

A longtime volunteer, Michael Sumner (lives in both Mexico City and US), has been leading the shipping logistics effort. Like many tasks, this has turned into a much more complex one. When we first started to work on this, we got bids for the shipping from $7K to $1,200, plus the customs and border fees. We ran head long into what seemed like an insurmountable wall. In order to get the shipment across the border, we need a "Registered Importer" to receive the goods on the Mexican side. This has turned into a quagmire. The first option, proposed by several of the logistics companies, was to hire a "comercializadora". This is a company that will "act as a Registered Importer" for a fee. The potential fees for this service are as much as the shipping! Thus, we needed a better solution. We then turned to our network in Mexico to try to find a solution. We leveraged our Mexico City Rotary contacts and with the help of Fausto de Anda E. we solved several parts of the puzzle (shipping logistics and temporary warehouse), but the Registered Importer still eluded us. Finally, Michael has found a Registered Importer that will receive our shipment. We are now receiving and reviewing the final bids for the shipping and logistics. Our hope is to have the molds on "the truck" next week and arrive in Mexico City 6 - 10 days later.

Securing Suppliers

With the help of Ulisis, Jose (a colleague of his) and Michael, we are rounding up all the supplies we need and the logistics of shipping them to the three regions for the upcoming workshops. Ulisis is a longtime colleague who is ex-staff of The Hunger Project, and he was with us for the first Gen1 workshop training several years ago. Ulisis has secured a company to cut and build the plywood molding tools. And with the help of Jose they have been able to secure suppliers for all the other required materials.

La Mazateca Gen2.1 Workshops in Mexico Delayed

Due to the unprecedented violence in Mexico prior to the elections (national, state and local) held on July 1st, The Hunger Project - Mexico(the NGO setting up the workshops) recommended that we postpone the workshops that we were planning to start in early July. The workshops now will be in September and early October. We have been using this delay to our advantage to lower the costs and improve the construction process. We are also enhancing the construction manual. One of the most costly parts of the stove is the "castable refractory" (ceramic like cement mixture). With the delay, we have developed a "homemade" castable refractory that costs 50+% less than our planned commercially made products. We have found a much lower cost alternative to the expanded perlite and by changing the molding process, the parts do not require extra finishing steps. In addition, with the help of Fred (CAD) we have further reduced the cost of the supporting structure and simplified the final assembly process.

There will be three workshops starting in September. The largest one will be in Chiapas where stove builders from Chiapas, Oaxaca and San Luis Potosí will be introduced to the Gen2.1 stove building process and will then proceed to build 8 stoves in Chiapas. The stoves builders from Oaxaca and San Luis Potosí will then return to their home states and begin constructing stoves there. In total they will build 25 stoves in Chaipas, 15 in Oaxaca and 10 in San Luis Potosí over the following weeks. Rick and Stan will travel to each of those states to clear up any remaining questions and to bring the remaining stove builders in each state up to speed.

New Website Launched

In January we launched our new website, using a WordPress platform. A huge THANK YOU to Ralph Beckett, and all our volunteers, who made this happen. Ralph did a lot of the heavy lifting and we appreciate the many hours of work he dedicated to this effort. The new website is more secure and easier to keep up to date. And, it will be easier for us to find experienced WordPress volunteers in the future to help us manage our web presence.

New Volunteers

SalesForce
We have several new volunteers: Andrew Chase, David Alevy, Neil Penso, Palak Shah, to manage and update our Salesforce CRM database. They are fast learners and have experience with the nonprofit version which is extremely helpful since it is very different from the "selling version". They are hard at work making the database more useful and bug-free.
Board Happenings:
Charlie (Board Chairman) has a La Mazateca Gen2.1 cookstove in his backyard. He and Sarah will be hosting fundraising events in their home and showing off La Mazateca Gen2.1 in the process. We also want to welcome Michael P. Kraft as our newest board member. Michael has been part of our volunteer community supporting us with his marketing expertise.
Supporting Us:
Do you have an underused cell phone, tablet, laptop, router or printer you no longer need? Please contact us at Info@WaterforHumans.Org All donations are fully tax deductible.


Your donations are always greatly appreciated, and fully tax deductible. DonateIcon

Have some spare time on your hands? How about becoming a VolunteerIcon ?

Kind Regards,
Rick&Stan-Sig

Saturday, March 17, 2018

Open House Launch Party

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La Mazateca Gen 2.1 Cookstove Open House Launch Party
in NE Seattle
ChiapasOwners
Sunday, March 18th Open House 1-5 PM
13714 37th Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98125

The new and improved La Mazateca Gen2.1 cookstove is ready for production.
Current Gen1 stove builders in Southern Mexico are super excited about the upcoming July workshops to learn how to build and maintain the new stoves.

Please join us for an open house to celebrate this exciting news from 1 - 5 PM on Sunday, March 18th. We will be cooking on the new stove, so you can see it in action and try it out!
For tickets, click here:
TicketsAdmitOne

Can't make it? You can still make a donation to help launch the first, new stove builds for indigenous families in Southern Mexico (Chiapas, Oaxaca & San Luis Potosi).

 

Saturday, March 10, 2018

La Mazateca Cookstove Launch party



La Mazateca Gen 2.1 Cookstove Launch Party
in NE Seattle
Sunday, March 18th 1-5 PM
13714 37th Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98125


The new and improved La Mazateca Gen2.1 cookstove is ready for production.
Current Gen1 stove builders in Southern Mexico are super excited about the upcoming workshops to learn how to build and maintain the new stoves.

Please join us for an open house event to celebrate this exciting news from 1-5 PM on Sunday, March 18th. We will be cooking on the new stove, so you can see it in action and try it out!
For tickets, click Hear:

Can't make it? How about supporting our launch and the first stove builds in Chiapas, Oaxaca & San Luis Potosi by making a donation.
https://connect.clickandpledge.com/w/Form/ba711908-65fc-438a-933e-e6df935b2c6a?636563254991464690 

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Save the Date --Cookstove Launch Party

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Save the date - Cookstove Launch Party
Save the date Sunday, March 18th from 1-4 PM in NE Seattle, for our La Mazateca Gen 2.1 cookstove launch party.
ChiapasDelegation
Sunday, March 18th 1-4 PM
13714 37th Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98125
After several long years, we are finally there! We have our new La Mazateca Gen2.1 cookstove ready for production and upcoming implementation in southern Mexico in April.

Please join us for an open house event to celebrate this exciting news from 1-4 PM on Sunday, March 18th. We will be cooking on the new stove, so you can see it in action and try it out!

Can't show you any photos yet as the design is not public yet. However, it will be by the 18th! So come and see for yourself this great innovation, and enjoy some food, friends and fellow supporters. 

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Cookstove development update

Fred, Stan and I are working like crazy on testing and refining the Gen2.1 cookstove.  Thus far we have made and tested four stoves all with incremental design improvements.  Sadly, we can not yet show any photos or images as the intellectual Property protections are not in place yet.

However, With our testing and minor modifications (will be easy and affordable to incorporate into production). We have greatly improved the usability, cooking efficiency and reduced the material volumes.

We are still on schedule for our launch in late Jan 2018 in Chiapas, Oaxaca and San Luis Potosi.

Friday, May 12, 2017

The world needs more toilets, but Western solutions aren't the answer

Today, 35.8% of the world’s population still lacks access to any proper sanitation facilities.

That’s why in 2015, the world’s leaders agreed to strive for access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all by 2030 as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. That means more than three billion extra people will need access to a toilet.

But if we solve this problem with the flush toilets we’re used to in the West, we will have a whole new water access and sanitation problem on our hands. <...more...>

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Graphene Sieve Turns Seawater into Drinking Water

A graphene membrane. Photo: The University of Manchester

Graphene-oxide membranes have attracted considerable attention as promising candidates for new filtration technologies. Now the much sought-after development of making membranes capable of sieving common salts has been achieved.

New research demonstrates the real-world potential (...more...)