Engineering for Education: photos

I woke up to a lovely surprise this morning—an email from Raquel, the truly remarkable woman who founded Mantay. She told me that one of the newest mothers, who arrived in ill health (as many of them do), has since gained 2 kilos. This is about 4 pounds. She also let me know that she is adapting to life at the home and that she gave birth last Thursday to a healthy baby boy who she named Kevin. One of my favorite things about Spanish is the phrase for giving birth." They say "Dar a luz," or in English, "to give light."

Raquel's email was also packed with information that will be extremely helpful when designing, and ultimately building, the library. She gave us the average price of common construction materials. As I guessed, these materials are brick and cement. This is actually wonderful because neither of these materials are expensive or hard to come by, and they are sturdy and provide a nice thermal mass. She also gave us some average prices for materials so that we can get started on drafting a more accurate budget for the project.

Finally, the library will be built as the second floor of a preexisting building and Raquel sent us a number of photos of this building. We now have a better concept of the space we have in which to build. Thanks Raquel!

The library will be built as a second floor above the green building. On the first first floor, the room on the left will be renovated and become a classroom. The room on the right is the laundry room. Luckily the building was built with the intention of eventually adding a second floor, so no major structural changes to the first floor will be necessary.

About This Blog

Engineering for Education is a project by two students at Smith College: Victoria Henry '12, and Geneviéve de Mijolla '13. The project aims to promote education and literacy amongst Peruvian woman by constructing a library at La Casa Mantay, a home for teenage mothers in Cusco, Peru. Most of the mothers at Mantay have been victims of sexual violence, and left school due to their circumstances and the Peruvian stigma against pregnant teens. By providing the mothers of Mantay with a much needed educational resource, we hope to help stop the prevalence of sexual violence against poor, uneducated women and girls and help end educational inequality in Peru.

Additionally, the library aims to promote and implement sustainable building practices. Victoria and Genevieve have used knowledge acquired in their Engineering classes at Smith College to create a sustainable, low-energy library design. All construction materials will be bought locally in order to stimulate the Cusco economy, and construction workers assisting in the project will also be local Cusqueños. We believe that building the library sustainably will not only benefit the planet and the Cusco economy, but that exposure to the idea of sustainability will be educational for the residents of Mantay.

About Us

Victoria Henry is a Junior English Major and Engineerign Minor from Taos, NM. She spent a year living in South America and was a past volunteer at Mantay. Her time at the home inspired this project. Despite her fair skin and British name, she thinks she may have her roots in Latin America and can't wait to go back!

Geneviéve de Mijolla is a Sophomore Physics and Engineering Major from Southern France. She's a whiz at programming and a master at functioning on very little sleep. In her spare time she hands out smiles like candy.

Paul Voss is a professor of engineering at Smith College....and also, our amazing advisor for this project!

Official Project Proposal

Building Site Photos

An Email from Mantay!

About This Blog

About Us

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