As Raquel Lozano Fernández explained, the mission was twofold. The 2024-25 president of the Rotary Club of Lima, Peru, Lozano is also the adviser for the Interact Club of Abraham Valdelomar, which is sponsored by the Lima club. Under the guidance of Lozano and other Rotarians, the Interactors embarked on an ambitious project to transform plastic bottles and other recyclable materials into eco-bricks. The bricks were then used to create tables and chairs for the Bellavista school in Independencia, a municipality north of Lima’s city center.
Raquel Lozano Fernández hugs Romina Abigail Solia (left) and Valeria Reymundo Zabrano, two of the Interactors participating in the eco-brick project and the social-emotional workshops at the Bellavista school.
Britani Alejos Cucho, a student at Bellavista school, compresses scraps of plastic into a recycled plastic bottle to create an eco-brick. The eco-bricks will later be used to make tables and chairs for the school.
The completed eco-bricks are prepared for the furniture-building phase of the project.
As part of the project, the Interactors included the Bellavista students in crafting the eco-brick furniture, thereby providing a useful lesson in environmental sustainability. But that was only one facet of the project. Under the guise of la gincana — connection-based games, songs, and activities — the Interactors also conducted social-emotional workshops with the younger students, thereby picking up lessons in leadership and confidence building along the way.
Left: The Bellavista school is in Independencia, a municipality north of the city center of Lima, Peru. Right: Interactors Camila Velazquez Castilla and Joaquin Camacho Solis show off a chair constructed from the eco-bricks.
Lozano (in cap) explains the next phase of the process to the students and Interactors.
On the steps of the Bellavista school, Rotarians, Interactors, and students display the fruits of their labor — and their newly acquired sense of camaraderie.
As for the relationship between the older and younger students, the Rotary staff duo report that the kids were all happily, well, “interacting.” Mission accomplished.
This story originally appeared in the August 2025 issue of Rotary magazine.