Partners

 World Hands Project, Mexico
World Hands Project, is a New Mexico non-profit organization that brings volunteers to Anapra, Mexico, to construct affordable homes with available natural materials, while employing and teaching skills to local builders. www.worldhandsproject.org
PAKSBAB, Pakistan
Pakistan Straw Bale and Appropriate Building (PAKSBAB) is an international group teaching and promoting straw bale and other appropriate building methods in Pakistan. Formed in 2006 in response to seismic destruction in the region, PAKSBAB has helped construct 27 structures to date. They work with local builders and homeowners to create regionally appropriate designs and dwellings that are earthquake resistant, well insulated, and make use of indigenous materials and skills. www.paksbab.org
NextAid, South Africa
NextAid’s mission is to promote community-driven, environmentally sustainable, socially empowering responses to the AIDS orphan pandemic. This Los Angeles-based non-profit organization organized and initiated the construction of an ecological child-support center for children impacted by HIV/AIDS, in Dennilton, South Africa. Since construction begun in July 2005, several buildings have been completed, and their work and commitment continues. www.nextaid.org
Altai Project, Russia
In the beautiful Altai region in southern Siberia, BWB members helped the Center for Safe Energy, a US non-profit, and the Fund for 21st Century Altai, a Russian NGO working to promote eco-tourism and land stewardship, build a straw-bale demonstration building in 2005. Another strawbale construction workshop in Russia is in the planning stages for 2008. Read more from BWB facilitator, Jeff Ruppert, P.E.. www.altaiproject.org
Sustainable Maine
The “Sustainable Maine” initiative promotes sustainable building methods among the rural communities in the state. Goals include creation of working examples of natural building for comparisons of methodologies, documentation of projects in an educational CD-ROM, and to increase building skills and the community building network within the region. (see more…coming soon.)
Natural Building Network
In 2006 BWB supported the creation of the Natural Building Network (NBN), a membership based non-profit education and outreach organization dedicated to making sustainable a regenerative healthy habitation more universally accessible, desirable and plausible. At the website, www.naturalbuildingnetwork.org, find listings of workshops, events, opportunities and human resources, and an on-line meeting place for the widespread community of natural builders.
Kleiwerks International
Kleiwerks International promotes social transformation and ecological regeneration by leading trainings in natural building and whole systems solutions, in collaboration with community-based organizations. Through its hands-on education and building projects Kleiwerks (a 501(c)3 non-profit) is part of a worldwide movement that is reviving and refining the art and joy of natural building and living. www.kleiwerks.org
The Last Straw Journal
The International Journal of Straw Bale and Natural Building, TLS also connects the community of straw-bale building advocates and professionals, providing current information on strawbale and natural building. It’s website at www.thelaststraw.org offers access to code information, organizational and human resources, while the quarterly journal keeps pace with the latest developments in the field.