The Kiss of Death

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10. The total cost for 400 houses was $83,256, out of which villagers provided $37,642 in work and materials, and collaborators in the project provided $45,614, of which PBCM gave $10,814, Catholic Relief Services $5,000, the British embassy $5,000, and PROCOSI $24,800. PROCOSI (Programa de Coordinacion en Supervivencia Infantil) is funded by USAID and the Bolivia Child Survival program. It is a supervisory and administrative organization for many nongovernmental health agencies and projects in Bolivia.

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11. Volunteer labor is figured in to the cost of each house to indicate to providers of funds that what they contribute is matched. However, this gives the impression that house improvement is much more costly to the taxpayer or contributor.

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12. The addition of vermifuge plants to wall plaster is another possibility, and insecticide paints are now being used effectively in Brazil (Pinchin et al. 1978a, 1978b).

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13. Slow-release insecticide paints used during house building have shown lasting properties of killing 100 percent of 5th instar T. infestans after a ten-minute period of contact more than five years after being applied and subsequently exposed to environmental conditions in Brazil (Oliveira Filho, Deus, and Brasil 1987). Structures of a house were painted with black bitumen paint containing 9.7 percent clorpyrifos-ethyl (Dursban) before covering them with mud. This technique could be used in areas where houses are being built or restored. Using Dursban insecticide for painting walls presents problems of toxicity for humans, however.

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14. An alternative low-cost roofing for tropical areas of Latin America involves the conversion of fibrous agricultural residues, such as bagasse from sugar cane, into a corrugated fiber roofing panel, which requires a relatively low capital investment and is labor intensive (Bryant 1978). Cost per square foot is about fifteen cents in U.S. money (1978).

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15. Because of its clay content, walls built of unstabilized soil will swell on taking up water and shrink on drying (Briceno-Leon 1987:384). This results in cracking, which provides nesting areas for vinchucas. Soil stabilization is achieved by increasing the strength and cohesion of the soil, reducing the movement of moisture in the soil, and by making the soil more waterproof. Strength of a soil can be increased by the addition ofcementious materials, such as Portland cement or other materials that include hydrated lime and lime-pozzolana mixes. A pozzolanic reaction is the reaction between lime and certain clay minerals to form various cementlike compounds. Lime also reduces the extent to which clay absorbs water, thus making the soil less sensitive to changes in moisture.

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16. In Venezuela and Brazil, workers use metal presses to compact the mud within the cane to assure greater durability for cloth coverings or cement later placed on the walls (Schofield et al. 1990 and Bricefio-Leon 1990:137). All these devices produce low-cost building blocks of about 12 x 6 x 4 inches, similar in size to traditional handmade adobe blocks (Bricefio-Leon 1987:384).

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17. Marco Antonio Prieto, director of Centro por Estudios por Desarollo Chuquisaca (CEDEC), provided this critique.

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1. See Victor Varas Reyes’ study El Castellano Popular en Tarija and Ananias Barreto’s work Costumbresy Creencias del Campo Taijeno for more examples.

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2. A number of institutions, including Caritas (Catholic Relief), Pro-Habitat (UNICEF), SOH/CCH (Secretaria Nacional de Salud and USAID), and Plan International, have been involved in several projects in the Department of Tarija to improve houses. Each institution has contributed to solving the problem: Caritas (formation of CHWs), Pro-Habitat (educational material), SOH/CCH (evaluation studies and financial support), and Plan International (a micro-credit system). The projects have had different sponsoring organizations through their tenure.

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3. I first met Jose Beltran in 1991 and admired his teaching skills. During our last visit in 1997, he was even more proficient using the colorful charts and posters that he had helped design for other projects sponsored by SOH/CCH.