Project #5 - Chagas Intervention - Pioneer Beds

​    Prior to our trip to Paraguay we were informed that Chagas disease was becoming a problem in Abundancia. We had students work on projects to prevent transmission of the disease.  We learned that the bug likes to be in the ground and the majority of people in Abundancia sleep on the ground. We tried to find a cheap way of getting them off the ground. At BYU Idaho we decided to build pioneer beds and made a few prototypes. Once we got to Abundancia we wanted to test out those prototypes.

     Original pioneer beds were made out of wood and rope. We knew it would be difficult to find rope so we tried to use materials found in Abundancia. First we came up with the idea of making rope out of used plastic grocery bags. We taught the women and children how to braid the bags into rope. This first bed worked very well but ended up requiring nearly 1000 bags, way more than could be easily collected. A factory in Filadelfia donated nearly 100 large grain bags. So our second bed was made out of them. It was built quickly, but there were problems with sagging. The third experimental bed used nylon twine. Again we recruited women and children to help us weave ropes that were used on the bed. This prototype appeared to be the best option. We have the goal to search for funding to help the Nivacle build their own beds in 2015. One man said he liked the design and wanted to learn how to build it so he could sell them to people in nearby communities. Another stopped us and asked us if we could help fix his bed that was broken. It was a nice designed bed but not durable, we were sad to hear he had spent 1000000 guaranies on the bed. Ours cost a fraction of that to build and appear more durable.

   We left the three prototypes at different houses that had many kids. I stopped by one of the houses the next day and asked the mom who was the lucky child to sleep in the bed. She said all three of them slept in the bed. One more thing about the beds. The dimensions of the beds we built turned out to be the same size as standard mosquito netting. So the nets fit perfectly over the beds.