Teso Women Charcoal Briquettes and Energy Saving Cookstoves Project - Uganda

This activity is making smokeless charcoal briquettes using agricultural waste, namely the husks of groundnuts. It is also training women to become distributors and marketers of energy saving cookstoves. This is reducing deforestation and mitigating climate change.

Fast facts:

24 people have worked on this project and directly benefited;
This activity has an average of 1,500 customers.

The problem

Currently, climate change is being manifested in long drought spells, floods, strong winds, etc.

The solution

This activity is preventing deforestation and CO2 emissions by recycling agricultural waste. When trees are protected, they sequester carbon and provide homes for wild animals. This activity is also reducing the distances women and girls have to walk in search of firewood.

Helping the planet

The charcoal briquettes are carbonized so they do not emit smoke, a source of greenhouse gas emissions. The cookstoves have been built to ensure that emissions are minimal. Both the cookstoves and the briquettes were tested by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Helping people

Women are being empowered through their participation in identifying the scarcity of clean affordable energy in their community. They designed the project, supply the raw materials, produce the briquettes and market the briquettes and energy efficient cookstoves.

Scaling Up

This activity can be scaled up in any area with agricultural waste and sun to dry the briquettes. There is a market in Africa where a large chunk of the population relies on firewood and wood charcoal for cooking as fuel. This project only requires basic skills in quality control and business management.