Conservation and Technology.....
Vital Steps in Breaking the Cycle of Poverty.....
'Little Switzerland' in western Uganda used to be rain forest home of many plants and animals.
Most of the beautiful wild areas of Uganda have been destroyed by human activity. The animals and plants are gone, along with the critical resources that natural areas provide. In our very first visit to Uganda in 2003, we drove west to legendary Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, a national park of mountain rain forest set aside because of it amazing ecological diversity and because it is home to nearly half the remaining mountain gorillas on earth. We went there to track gorillas and thereby support conservation efforts.
On the way we drove through rolling countryside with steep hills covered with lovely terraced farms. So picturesque is this region that it is referred to as "Little Switzerland." The long up and down grades and steep curves went on and on, and stops at lookout stations were a must for travelers. Only later did we realize that this beautiful farming region was carved out of mountain rain forest. The Bwindi Park was the only patch left. Poor, hungry people around the world will destroy wild areas in order to eat--hunt, farm or both. Poverty and conservation of natural areas are closely linked!!
Real Partners Uganda is dedicated to conservation, not just in natural areas, but in the places where people already live. The land, water, natural cycles of wastes and nutrients need to be conserved or restored--in most cases to improve the lives of the people. To make progress against the poverty, it is vital that we work to end non-sustainable use of natural resources. On this page we describe some of the steps we have taken or are planning to make all our development environmentally friendly--a model for the community.
On the way we drove through rolling countryside with steep hills covered with lovely terraced farms. So picturesque is this region that it is referred to as "Little Switzerland." The long up and down grades and steep curves went on and on, and stops at lookout stations were a must for travelers. Only later did we realize that this beautiful farming region was carved out of mountain rain forest. The Bwindi Park was the only patch left. Poor, hungry people around the world will destroy wild areas in order to eat--hunt, farm or both. Poverty and conservation of natural areas are closely linked!!
Real Partners Uganda is dedicated to conservation, not just in natural areas, but in the places where people already live. The land, water, natural cycles of wastes and nutrients need to be conserved or restored--in most cases to improve the lives of the people. To make progress against the poverty, it is vital that we work to end non-sustainable use of natural resources. On this page we describe some of the steps we have taken or are planning to make all our development environmentally friendly--a model for the community.
Cooking Lite: Reducing fuel use and health risks.....
Cooks work in a smokey kitchen feeding 300 people each day.
To conserve fuel and provide a healthier, more efficient food preparation, Real Partners Uganda, in conjunction with our partner organization Tree of Life Ministries, has just completed a unique new kitchen at our Mustard Seed Academy campus. The kitchen itself is constructed of Interlocking Soil Stabilized Blocks (ISSBs) that are fabricated on the building site, require no firing (wood consumption), and reduce cement usage to a fraction. (see photo above).
Inside the new building--which Ugandans say looks too nice for a kitchen--are four new high-efficiency Ugastoves (see below). Ugastoves were invented and are manufactured in Uganda. They cut wood consumption by half, while eliminating smoke in the kitchen and cooking food faster. RPU gives special thanks to partner Tom Sheridan and Community Prebyterian Church of Brigantine, NJ for raising money to help construct the building and purchase the stoves. The new building and cooking technology are but two of the ways RPU and Tree of Life Ministries have cooperated to introduce sustainable technologies that will play an important role in breaking the cycle of poverty.
Inside the new building--which Ugandans say looks too nice for a kitchen--are four new high-efficiency Ugastoves (see below). Ugastoves were invented and are manufactured in Uganda. They cut wood consumption by half, while eliminating smoke in the kitchen and cooking food faster. RPU gives special thanks to partner Tom Sheridan and Community Prebyterian Church of Brigantine, NJ for raising money to help construct the building and purchase the stoves. The new building and cooking technology are but two of the ways RPU and Tree of Life Ministries have cooperated to introduce sustainable technologies that will play an important role in breaking the cycle of poverty.
Bbosa with two large Ugastoves in new MSA kitchen. Notice the small fireboxes at the base and chimney pipes.
ISSBs: Building methods that reduce deforestation
Compression mold and newly fabricated Interlocking Stabilized Soil Block.
Termites!! The wood-eating insects must be the "national insect" of Uganda--maybe for most of sub-Saharan Africa. Some experts estimate that the biomass of the termites in Uganda is about equal to that of all mammals combined--yes, including elephants, hippos, giraffes, lions, leopard, cape buffalo, all of them of them together! Decisions about construction are made with termites in mind. Unless one coats raw wood with toxic preservatives (creosote, etc.) a sturdy floor plank in a classroom may be reduced to dust in one year, riddled with tunnels created by chewing termites.
Permanent buildings, when they can be afforded are generally built with bricks and cement. The production of both bricks and cement is very costly to the environment. Although bricks are molded from special kinds of earth, they must be fired in a furnace to make them hard and strong for construction. Thousands of small kilns for firing bricks dot the Ugandan landscape, all using precious wood or charcoal (made from wood) for firing bricks. Cement manufacturing is at least as problematic with a ton of CO2 released into the environment for every ton of cement produced.
Thanks to the innovations of Professor Musaazi of Makerere University in Kampala (Uganda) there is a smart alternative that is being used in Lukaya at Mustard Seed Academy for most of our building. Interlocking Stabilized Soil Blocks are created in a hand-operated compression mold on site. The ingredients include a subsoil called murrum, water and a very small amount of cement. The ISSBs cure in the air and can be used in as little as four hours after molding. Furthermore, the actual construction process requires about one tenth as much cement as brick methods. Done skillfully the buildings are quite handsome, and require no facing on either side.
Supported by Real Partners Uganda, a machine for fabricating ISSBs has been leased from another charity organization and workers at Tree of Life Ministries have undergone a week of training. Initial attempts by our untrained workers generated about 100 blocks per day by a team of three men. Now the same team produces 600 blocks per day. The new kitchen built with ISSBs on the Uganda campus (see photos) is the talk of Lukaya, with many observers noting that the building "looks too nice to be a kitchen."
This "low technology" is an affordable, eco-friendly method for addressing construction needs! For more informations see http://www.rics.org/site/scripts/documents_info.aspx?categoryID=513&documentID=597&pageNumber=3
Permanent buildings, when they can be afforded are generally built with bricks and cement. The production of both bricks and cement is very costly to the environment. Although bricks are molded from special kinds of earth, they must be fired in a furnace to make them hard and strong for construction. Thousands of small kilns for firing bricks dot the Ugandan landscape, all using precious wood or charcoal (made from wood) for firing bricks. Cement manufacturing is at least as problematic with a ton of CO2 released into the environment for every ton of cement produced.
Thanks to the innovations of Professor Musaazi of Makerere University in Kampala (Uganda) there is a smart alternative that is being used in Lukaya at Mustard Seed Academy for most of our building. Interlocking Stabilized Soil Blocks are created in a hand-operated compression mold on site. The ingredients include a subsoil called murrum, water and a very small amount of cement. The ISSBs cure in the air and can be used in as little as four hours after molding. Furthermore, the actual construction process requires about one tenth as much cement as brick methods. Done skillfully the buildings are quite handsome, and require no facing on either side.
Supported by Real Partners Uganda, a machine for fabricating ISSBs has been leased from another charity organization and workers at Tree of Life Ministries have undergone a week of training. Initial attempts by our untrained workers generated about 100 blocks per day by a team of three men. Now the same team produces 600 blocks per day. The new kitchen built with ISSBs on the Uganda campus (see photos) is the talk of Lukaya, with many observers noting that the building "looks too nice to be a kitchen."
This "low technology" is an affordable, eco-friendly method for addressing construction needs! For more informations see http://www.rics.org/site/scripts/documents_info.aspx?categoryID=513&documentID=597&pageNumber=3
 ISSBs cure after molding |
|
Composting toilets: Recycling Human Wastes.....
Inspecting new composting toilets on MSA campus
Most Ugandans use deep pit latrines for human waste disposal. A pit latrine is simply concrete slabs with an opening leading into a deep hole in the ground into which the waste is deposited directly. Even though the pits are 25 feet deep, they smell, attract insects and are not pleasant places in our experience. Perhaps the most troublesome thing about them is that they only partially contain the waste. If the water table is high, as in Lukaya, it is polluted by waste water leeching into the ground water. Many water sources--lakes, streams, ponds--are contaminated and unsafe for drinking. To purify the water it must be boiled or treated in another manner, consuming more time and resources.
At Mustard Seed Academy we have nearly 400 individuals creating wastes. We have gradually switched over from traditional pit latrines to Ecotoilets that separate urine and feces, capturing them for composting or immediate use (urine) as garden fertilzer. An even better way to "harvest" the energy contained in human and animal waste is the production of biogas that can be used for cooking and other energy needs. Soon TOLM will be installing its first bio-digester on the America campus. The gas produced will be used for cooking, and the remaining waste slurry will be used to fertilize the gardens. We hope we can model this for the community and convince them to try new ways of dealing with wastes.
At Mustard Seed Academy we have nearly 400 individuals creating wastes. We have gradually switched over from traditional pit latrines to Ecotoilets that separate urine and feces, capturing them for composting or immediate use (urine) as garden fertilzer. An even better way to "harvest" the energy contained in human and animal waste is the production of biogas that can be used for cooking and other energy needs. Soon TOLM will be installing its first bio-digester on the America campus. The gas produced will be used for cooking, and the remaining waste slurry will be used to fertilize the gardens. We hope we can model this for the community and convince them to try new ways of dealing with wastes.
 Inside ecotoilet that separates urine and feces. |  Doors at rear of Eco-toilet catch heat from sun and dry feces before removal. |
Solar power pumps water again for the village of Kalungi.....
Board Advisor Tom Sheridan supervises solar panel installation in Kalungi village.
Most of the buildings in the Lukaya trading center on the highway have electricity from "national grid." We may have it too, but it is expensive and unreliable. It may be off for hours or days at a time because Uganda produces too little hydroelectric power to meet demand, and so "shares" power. On the equator where the project is located, sunshine is abundant and thus so is the potential for solar power.
The project shown to the left is in a nearby village called Kalungi where solar energy pumps water uphill to a central storage tank. It is distributed from there to several locations in the village from which residents may fetch it for use at home. Shortly after the system was installed, thieves came during the night and stole the panels. The results were devastating, because now, to get water people, mostly women and children, has to walk down the 2 km hill to fill gerry cans from a poorly functioning manual bore hole pump. Then, with 4 or more gerry cans weighing 40 lbs each strapped to a bicycle, the villagers had to push that bike uphill a long way. The morning and evening chore took a lot of energy and time that the poor people of Kalungi could ill afford.
Real Partners Uganda, with the leadership of Board Advisor Tom Sheridan, raised funds and supervised the installation of new solar panels. It was then discovered that the pump had seized and needed to be replaced. the broken one was taken back to America and the US manufacturer sold RPU a replacement. In May 2010, the new pump traveled back to Uganda with long term volunteer Wayne Myers, and water is flowing again in Kalungi.
At Mustard Seed Academy, our campus master plan calls for solar power as the primary source of energy. We will be looking for donors to fund a large installation using the roof tops of our new buildings. Among the applications will be water pumping, lights, power for office equipment, A/V instruments for MSA and communication. Currently there is no electricity on either MSA campus. Hopefully, that will be changing soon.
The project shown to the left is in a nearby village called Kalungi where solar energy pumps water uphill to a central storage tank. It is distributed from there to several locations in the village from which residents may fetch it for use at home. Shortly after the system was installed, thieves came during the night and stole the panels. The results were devastating, because now, to get water people, mostly women and children, has to walk down the 2 km hill to fill gerry cans from a poorly functioning manual bore hole pump. Then, with 4 or more gerry cans weighing 40 lbs each strapped to a bicycle, the villagers had to push that bike uphill a long way. The morning and evening chore took a lot of energy and time that the poor people of Kalungi could ill afford.
Real Partners Uganda, with the leadership of Board Advisor Tom Sheridan, raised funds and supervised the installation of new solar panels. It was then discovered that the pump had seized and needed to be replaced. the broken one was taken back to America and the US manufacturer sold RPU a replacement. In May 2010, the new pump traveled back to Uganda with long term volunteer Wayne Myers, and water is flowing again in Kalungi.
At Mustard Seed Academy, our campus master plan calls for solar power as the primary source of energy. We will be looking for donors to fund a large installation using the roof tops of our new buildings. Among the applications will be water pumping, lights, power for office equipment, A/V instruments for MSA and communication. Currently there is no electricity on either MSA campus. Hopefully, that will be changing soon.
