Hello Ms Christina Schwanke ,

Very Interesting idea to bridge the gap between urban and rural areas for social well being of communities as it faces unique , economic and institutional challenges , There are more people leaving and left rural areas than arrived though rural regions makes significant contributions to the nation building but still it is ignored in many parts of the world. In my opinion it probably needs a greater attention of the policymakers to design comprehensive policies to meet the multifaceted challenges working with organizations like yours. All the best for your mission. thanks

Dear Anubha Sharma Ji ,

There are not enough words to describe about the noble work which your Organization Angel Express are undertaking after reading your project and all I can say" HATS OFF " to you , your team members , supporters , partners ,donors organizations and all those people who are involved supporting behind your noble mission. It needs a strong commitment and a passion to help the unfortunate poor children. I wonder if Angel Express could think of replicating a similar model by sharing your experiences in other countries for Slum children in countries like Mexico , Africa , Phillipines , UK , N/S Americas etc . As you rightly mentioned the number of migration from rural areas are causing expansion of slums in urban cities and creating opportunities in rural areas will certainly impact in further expansions of these slums.

I wish you and your entire team with good luck for this noble mission and will try to spread and put forward our words to support your mission .

Hi Aline ,

Many thanks for your feedback as it helps us all , Your project on bricks producing sounds great to empower the livelihood of rural community but as you are aware Indonesia , India and many other countries are still using the old practices of wood as a traditional fuel for firing bricks , I think we all should discourage this traditional practice of using wood for firing bricks and start advocating with an alternative energy source available today to use Electric Kiln firing Bricks technology. ( 100% environment friendly with a low cost energy bills).

We all can understand that large brick manufacturers will be able to afford this technology with a cost ranges from 2000 USD/per set. The problem is with small scale brick producers they may not be able to immediately afford this technology but in the mean time they need to be advised to develop a method of firing bricks with sustainable fuels, so that everyone can make their own bricks at a very low cost, using environmentally friendly methods, and build themselves a more durable house.

Agri residues if directly used for firing bricks is not an environment friendly option .the best way I can think of is to work with more environmentally friendly charcoal production system using a low-cost retort-kiln (Eco-charcoal) Eco charcoal/ Biochar which will cause less damages to environment.

I wish you good luck for your project and we should all work together no matter who will be finalists as I find all 55 shortlisted participants have great ideas with an innovative ways of solving problems. Please do keep us posted with your views and we hope to work together in some point of time in future. Thanks with regards , Joy