loofah

Before writing this entry, I had always associated the word "loofah" with the scrubber used for cleaning the body.  I never thought it's the actual english name of a vegetable, and it's a vegetable I'm very familiar with.  We call it "patola" here in the Philippines. I always associate it with the yummy dish, "patola with miswa".

In Paraguay, the loofah is improving lives. In a project headed by social activist, Elsa Zaldívar, local women in Caaguazú started planting and processing the vegetable. They made products like mats, slippers and insoles out of dried loofahs. It was a successful venture and they were even able to export it to Europe. It gave the women a steady source of income.

However, a lot of raw material were still wasted, so Elsa got the help of industrial engineer, Pedro Padrós, to see if they can use it to build houses for the people.

“We want to find sustainable housing alternatives for the poor, while also discovering new markets for their agricultural products, particularly the loofah. This is a perfect combination,” she says.

Pedro was able to create a machine that melts plastic, and he mixed the result with loofah and other vegetable fibres. After lots of experimentation, they produced a sturdy material that's lightweight, safe and recyclable. They also received a grant from Inter-American Development Bank for the development of another machine that can produce the housing panels.

“Because we’re using fibres that are completely renewable, we can stop using lumber for construction. That’s very important in Paraguay because we’ve already reduced our original forest to less than ten per cent of Paraguay’s territory,” Elsa said. “We’re running out of trees.”

As a result of her work, Elsa was awarded the Rolex Award for Enterprise last 2008. They will be using the money to fund the creation of a promotion centre, three model houses that showcases the loofah panels and a video that details the project for other interested groups.

Sources:
http://rolexawards.com/en/the-laureates/elsazaldivar-the-project.jsp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luffa
http://keetsa.com/blog/recycle/paraguay-homes-built-out-of-loofah-and-corn-husks/
http://earthfirst.com/low-cost-housing-made-from-loofahs/
http://www.resnicowschroeder.com