2rw Project Manager Travels to Kenya to Provide Training
As a student at James Madison University, William (Will) Schnorr met Justin Henriques, a cofounding Executive Director of Least of These International (LOTI). The mission of LOTI – to meet the basic needs of rural communities in developing countries through the use of appropriate and sustainable technologies – resonated with Will and eventually shaped the direction of his undergraduate research. In his studies, Will came to the realization that while energy is available almost everywhere in varying forms, the appropriateness of specific energy technologies used in developing countries is often an overlooked factor.
For Will’s senior capstone project at JMU, he worked with LOTI to develop sustainable energy technology to power a vaccine refrigerator in a remote village in Western Kenya. One result of Will’s thesis work was the recommendation to utilize biogas digesters to provide fuel for household energy needs. Biogas digesters make use of the anaerobic digestion of organic matter to produce methane gas, which can then be used as a clean burning fuel. The gas is generated using animal manure and agricultural waste, both of which are renewable feedstocks readily available in Kenya.
In the summer of 2009, Will had the opportunity to travel with LOTI to Namawanga, Kenya to provide a training seminar on the design, construction, and use of biogas for cooking applications. He taught a group of about 30 people between the ages of 16 and 60 how to build their own biogas digesters. For the three days following the teaching session, Will worked with the community to install a biogas digester at the home of Otieno, a local school teacher.
Otieno lives with his wife and five children in a small house located beside a dirt road that winds through Namawanga. Otieno, like many Namawangans, owns a few cows to help provide for his family. The day Will and his group met up with Otieno, he was walking home from work. As they walked with him back to his home, dark rain clouds began to form; Otieno told Will of a recent drought throughout the land resulting in low crop production. Otieno invited the group into his home and provided them with tea and corn on the cob prepared by his wife using their wood stove.
Like most Namwangans, Otieno's family uses firewood or charcoal as a cooking fuel, neither of which are readily available in Namanwanga. Often, women are expected to travel long distances to gather wood and carry it home on their shoulders. Cooking over the wood and charcoal stoves has a serious and adverse impact on health because of the particulate emissions from the fuels. This especially affects women and children , who often cook in poorly ventilated mud structures. The injurious effects associated with the use of organic fuel combustion were the foundation for the work of the LOTI project during the summer of 2009.
The biogas digester that the LOTI team installed uses cow manure as a feedstock to produce clean burning biogas, which helps to mitigate the health impacts associated with burning traditional fuels. The digester construction used only local materials, making it easily replicable for other areas of the community. There is an abundance of cow manure and crop residues in the area to use as feedstock for the digester; now, instead of having to travel for miles to collect dirty fuel, Namawangans can use what is already in their own backyards.
The introduction of this technology gave the community a financially viable, sustainable, and empowering technological solution to the challenges associated with the use of traditional fuels for cooking. This new concept evoked an enthusiastic response among community members and sparked excitement about the possibilities of using appropriate technologies to improve living conditions. LOTI continues to develop relationships with the Namawangan community, and will return there in coming years. If you are interested in learning more about LOTI, please visit their website at lotint.org.
For Will’s senior capstone project at JMU, he worked with LOTI to develop sustainable energy technology to power a vaccine refrigerator in a remote village in Western Kenya. One result of Will’s thesis work was the recommendation to utilize biogas digesters to provide fuel for household energy needs. Biogas digesters make use of the anaerobic digestion of organic matter to produce methane gas, which can then be used as a clean burning fuel. The gas is generated using animal manure and agricultural waste, both of which are renewable feedstocks readily available in Kenya.
In the summer of 2009, Will had the opportunity to travel with LOTI to Namawanga, Kenya to provide a training seminar on the design, construction, and use of biogas for cooking applications. He taught a group of about 30 people between the ages of 16 and 60 how to build their own biogas digesters. For the three days following the teaching session, Will worked with the community to install a biogas digester at the home of Otieno, a local school teacher.
Otieno lives with his wife and five children in a small house located beside a dirt road that winds through Namawanga. Otieno, like many Namawangans, owns a few cows to help provide for his family. The day Will and his group met up with Otieno, he was walking home from work. As they walked with him back to his home, dark rain clouds began to form; Otieno told Will of a recent drought throughout the land resulting in low crop production. Otieno invited the group into his home and provided them with tea and corn on the cob prepared by his wife using their wood stove.
Like most Namwangans, Otieno's family uses firewood or charcoal as a cooking fuel, neither of which are readily available in Namanwanga. Often, women are expected to travel long distances to gather wood and carry it home on their shoulders. Cooking over the wood and charcoal stoves has a serious and adverse impact on health because of the particulate emissions from the fuels. This especially affects women and children , who often cook in poorly ventilated mud structures. The injurious effects associated with the use of organic fuel combustion were the foundation for the work of the LOTI project during the summer of 2009.
The biogas digester that the LOTI team installed uses cow manure as a feedstock to produce clean burning biogas, which helps to mitigate the health impacts associated with burning traditional fuels. The digester construction used only local materials, making it easily replicable for other areas of the community. There is an abundance of cow manure and crop residues in the area to use as feedstock for the digester; now, instead of having to travel for miles to collect dirty fuel, Namawangans can use what is already in their own backyards.
The introduction of this technology gave the community a financially viable, sustainable, and empowering technological solution to the challenges associated with the use of traditional fuels for cooking. This new concept evoked an enthusiastic response among community members and sparked excitement about the possibilities of using appropriate technologies to improve living conditions. LOTI continues to develop relationships with the Namawangan community, and will return there in coming years. If you are interested in learning more about LOTI, please visit their website at lotint.org.