Saludos from Asunción!  My name is Stephanie Curry and I'm going to be a Project Director for the 2008 Paraguay-Paraguarí project.  I also served on Paraguay staff here last year with AMIGOS.  It was such a positive experience that I decided to stay, and I have been living and working in Paraguay since AMIGOS ended last summer.

Since then, I started my own initiative to build clean stoves for women in the campo who cook over open floor fires.  Clean stoves elevate the fire off the floor, close it so that children don't burn themselves, and vent smoke outside to prevent smoke-related health problems.  AMIGOS Volunteers heading towards the Paraguay-San Pedro project will have a chance to build these same clean stoves with their communities!

In addition to working on stoves, I've also been interning with Fundación Paraguaya, one of our partner agencies here, to better strengthen our programs together.  This year we will be expanding our program with them to incorporate more young Paraguayan volunteers into AMIGOS projects.  We also hope to develop a wheelchair campaign wherein Volunteers can identify children in their communities in need of wheelchairs, which will then be provided by the Fundación.

Having just returned from meeting the 2008 Project Staff in Houston, I can say with great confidence that this will be another excellent year for AMIGOS in Paraguay.  We have a great team to look after Volunteers.  I look forward to meeting the Volunteers in Paraguay!

Hasta pronto!

To learn more about my stove initiative, please visit my website:
www.thehealthierhomesproject.org