SIS Media Group and Hug It Forward are joining together to turn trash in to schools in Guatemala. Between January 23, 2012 and February 29 2012, SIS Media is donating 5% of the company’s net profits to an unusual fund raising campaign to build “bottle schools”.

Hug It Forward is a 501c3 non-profit organization that puts together intangible change with tangible change in a global effort to unite the world’s population as one.  Hug It Forward does this by raising awareness of global issues and demonstrating that people everywhere are the same.  Hug It Forward empowers communities to unite and work towards a common goal. That goal is to build local area schools from discarded plastic bottles and to remove tons of waste from the community where the schools are being built.

Pioneered in Guatemala by the organization Pura Vida, a bottle school is exactly what it sounds like—a school built from discarded plastic bottles.  When a school is built, local community volunteers collect empty plastic bottles and other types of non-biodegradable trash. The empty bottles are stuffed with the other waste materials. The filled bottles are then encased in chicken wire and used as insulation between the layers of concrete that is poured to form the walls of the school building. These stuffed plastic bottles are called “eco bricks”

Projects such a bottle schools not only serve to bring a community together , but create an eco-friendly school building by recycling plastic bottles and other materials that fill local landfills.

Tons of non- biodegradable waste such as plastic bottles and the other materials used in this type of project have long been a global problem.  Waste such as plastic bottles takes decades to degrade.

Hug It Forward’ s unique answer to this problem  in one of the world’s poorest countries is solution that not only  lends hope to thousands of children  for a brighter educational future, but sets a superb example of what green living and being environmentally responsible are all about.

According to Hug It Forward’s organizational web site, the first bottle school built October 2009 in Guatemala used over 5,000 plastic bottles and 2,053 pounds of trash to build two classrooms. This community built bottle school serves 297 students in area where the population of 13,860 people that are spread out over almost 96 square miles.

The cost of this project was about $10,000. This cost was considerably less than what it would usually cost to remove the tons of trash from the community and build a school.

While this type of project saves the community money, funding for materials to finish the classrooms are still needed. This is where the partnering of SIS Media and Hug It Forward comes in.

Most Americans take such things as schools and clean communities for granted.  We at SIS Media Group see this partnering with Hug It Forward as a chance to give back and help this wonderful organization in their quest to help communities help themselves, not only by giving their children a brighter future, but improving their entire community as well.

SIS Media Group and all of our staff are very proud to support this creative project that improves a whole community in such a simple way.