PAGE is helping move Uruguay closer to a greener and more prosperous economy. The project is creating better methods and training more brickmakers.
PAGE is helping move Uruguay closer to a greener and more prosperous economy. The project is creating better methods and training more brickmakers. In Uruguay, thousands of families earn a livelihood making bricks, using traditional methods that are often inefficient and harmful to the environment. A project named PAGE Uruguay (Partnership for Action on the Green Economy)- a collaboration between the Uruguayan government and the UN - aims to make the industry less polluting while preserving jobs for the many artisans who depend on it. During the brickmaking season, which lasts from September to April, an artisanal producer can make an average of about 30,000 bricks per month. The entire sector in Uruguay yields enough bricks every year to build at least 1,500 new houses, plus hundreds of businesses, kilns, factories, and more. Currently, the estimates suggest that some 14,000 families are working in 3,500 production units across the country.
Pablo Montes, the national coordinator of PAGE Uruguay, found that the artisanal brick industry is far behind technologically. He explains that there are significant obstacles to artisans moving to newer techniques. Obstacles such as fewer job opportunities, the requirement of certification that most artisans do not have, whether for the expense or because many have not finished primary school and can barely read or write.
That is why PAGE is looking to support the artisanal industry, helping workers to enjoy greater rights and higher incomes, and cutting pollution during the production process.
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