Fueling Change

Pressing on in Rumangabo

Category: Alternative energy | Date: Jul 18 2008 | By: endingcharcoal

Recent donations
Our humble thanks to the following people for helping us make the effort to end charcoal a success: Carol L. $200, Eileen C. $100, and Katie L $50. Your donations will go directly to supporting the very project you see below. Thank you!

Progress in Rumangabo
Last week, Virginia and Francky trained our new press workers and despite a brief encounter with an “unfriendly”, perservered and finished the week successfully. The workers seemed very eager and enthusiastic about their new job opportunity.

Virginia watches the teams take to briquetting like they were old hands at it

Gathering materials to be crushed and converted to compost

Gaining an appreciation for the hammer mill - workers use the old fashioned mortar and pestle. Your donations will help us purchase a hammer mill, which reduces a team’s labor by 75%!

Getting a feel for a good mix

The pressing competition in full-swing

The winning team takes home much needed rice and beans

Francky will be beginning full-time work in Rumangabo on July 21st. As with the hammer mill, your donations will help pay his salary and those of the press workers. Once our production dries and is ready for use, we will begin selling it locally with the hopes of having our sales finance the Rumangabo team. Our goal is to have the entire village weaned off of charcoal within 6 months. Thank you all for following our progress — and for your generous contributions!

Briquettes Helping Mountain Gorillas and People in Virunga NP

Category: Alternative energy | Date: Jul 10 2008 | By: endingcharcoal

Recent donations
Wow! A huge thank you to Natalia R. in California who gave us a $500.00 donation this month. Natalia did her thesis on Grauer’s gorillas and has been a steadfast supporter of the mountain gorillas as well. Judy B, thank you, too, for your generous donation. People like you make it all possible!

The latest news
Ultimately, we began exploring biomass briquettes as a way of saving mountain gorillas and the forests of Virunga, NP, but it’s becoming quite clear that we are going to be helping humans, too. It looks to be a win-win for everyone. The animals and forests will benefit from the reduction in deforestation and habitat destruction and people will benefit having access to a sustainable fuel that costs less. The current charcoal producers also stand to benefit through the creation of a new fuel market — one that is legal and not a dead-end. This week, we took one step closer to realizing our goal as Virginia Echavarria headed up to Rumangabo to start up a briquette operation at park headquarters with Ephrem Balole and ICCN Ranger Balemba.

Virginia arrived in Rumangabo on Tuesday with Francky Balole (no relation to Ephrem). Francky is one of the final candidates for the Briquette Assistant position that we posted in Bukavu and Goma in late June. With Belemba’s help, Ephrem hired 12 people from the displaced peoples’ camp. They will make up our initial press teams.

Francky takes a stove and briquettes home for a test during his training in Bukavu

Virginia and Francky headed up on Tuesday with material, and in classic Virginia-style, jumped right in. The first task was getting a feel for the area and seeing what exists up there in terms of available biomass. The answer: lots of leaves, which means lots of composting. We hope to augment this with waste products such as paper and sawdust, which reduce our labor requirements. They also got a feel for the facilities, such as where we will make the briquettes, store the materials and presses, as well the accommodations for our soon-to-be-named assistant. The next day, they gathered the workers and did a presentation on briquetting.

Newly hired press workers being briefed on the training schedule

Virginia’s presentation drew a far bigger crowd than expected. Look at her go!

Material preparation: Workers shredding and soaking waste paper from a Goma printer

My son Ty, inspired by all the paper shredding in Rumangabo, gets down to work himself

A team of new press workers and a new press getting to know each other

A worker laying out briquettes to dry

Franky leading a discussion about the pressing operation

Today, Virginia and Franky lead a competition amongst the teams to get an idea of how they were taking to the technology and how much they could produce. They were happily surprised to find that with a few days of training, the teams were producing 125 briquettes per hour. To put that in perspective, that’s enough briquettes made in one hour to supply cooking fuel to approximately 10 families of 8 people for a day — and for 35-40% less money. Virginia sent the workers home with stoves and free briquettes at the end of the day, so they could experience first-hand what it’s like to cook with the fuel they made. News about that and more coming soon…

As always, thanks go to the Legacy Foundation for their continued guidance!

Don’t let the silence fool you!

Category: Alternative energy | Date: Jul 02 2008 | By: endingcharcoal

My apologies for the long silence in this blog, but please don’t get the wrong impression. A great deal has been happening in the effort to end charcoal. Before I get to that, though, I would like to send out a sincere “Thanks!” to those of you that have continued to support our efforts.

Donations
Our heartfelt thanks go out to Judy J. for her monthly donation of $30, John J. $200, Carrie C. $100, Theresa T. $80, Alex A. $50, Carmen C. $40, and Robin R. $15.

Biomass Briquettes
In our last bog entry, I spoke of my trip to Portland to do a 3-day briquette training with the Legacy Foundation. Since then, Virginia and I have been working closely on the Bukavu briquette pilot, and as those of you who follow her blog know, she has been very successful. Not only are people constantly approaching her to bring a press operation to their village, she has even managed to start selling the briquettes. Our biggest fear, which was that people wouldn’t accept the biomass briquettes as an alternative to charcoal - or “makala” as it is know in the DRC — proved to be wrong. Quite to the contrary, people have said that briquettes burn just like charcoal. The evidence for this is that people are actually willing to buy the briquettes instead of charcoal.

The next phase of the briquette project is to take our operation closer to Virunga NP, the heart of the charcoal trade. Ephrem will be bringing three additional presses to Virunga NP next week. Our goal is to eventually attract the charcoal producers into the briquette market and make them realize that future profits will come from briquettes, not charcoal. The reality is, cutting down the forests of Virunga NP is a financial dead-end, whereas the materials for briquettes — grass and leaves — exist in abundance and can be regrown much more rapidly, all of which translates into sustainability. Let’s not kid ourselves, economic incentives are more powerful than an appeal to peoples’ sense of doing what is “right” for the mountain gorillas — especially when many of these people support their families on $1.00 per day.

The Briquette Project’s Unsung Heroes
I would really like to acknowledge all the help we have received from some key people behind the scenes:

Kizito Nandaka and William Guyot from SoDeRu: Thank you for providing housing, a car, bike, petrol, Internet connection, and security for Virginia — and for all of your encouragement. Also, thanks for putting up with my late night calls!

Sue and Sam: Thank you so much for paying for the first press operation.

Sister Helena Albarracin and the others at the Bukavu hospital: Thank you for being so willing to give this technology a try and for all the resources that you have made available.

Solange Ngobobo of IFRADE in Kadutu: Thank you for your help hosting the first press operation.

The Legacy Foundation: Thank you for all your help and expertise — and good humor.

You are the best!

Bosch-Siemens protos plant-oil stoves
As mentioned previously, Bosch und Siemens Hausgerate GmbH in Munich, Germany has graciously agreed to provide us with 100 protos plant-oil stoves and spare parts to carry out a 3-month feasibility study. These stoves can burn a variety of plant oils, all of which can be sustainably grown in the Congo. Our stoves left Nanjing, China two weeks ago and should arrive in Goma by early August. I will be going to Leyte University in the Philippines to train on the stoves, learn how to grow and press plant oil, as well as to learn about marketing the stoves. From there, I will go to the Congo to train the trainers and help Ephrem with kicking off the pilot, and assist with further developing the briquette program.

Fundraising
As you know, it all boils down to money eventually. I am busy writing grant proposals in hopes of securing the financial backing needed to make these projects successful. Emmanuel and I will be holding several fundraisers in the United States this fall. Several of you have come forward and offered to help us organize a fundraiser in your city — thank you. If you think you might be interested as well, please let us know. And, your donations to this blog continue to be a major help. With each biomass press we buy for $200, we can supply full-time employment for 8 people and get 100 families off of charcoal. Never underestimate the power of your contributions!