Burning less wood.
I enjoyed reading your article about environmental sustainability in Footsteps 20. Many of the problems mentioned can be linked to deforestation. While it is important to think about planting new trees, we also need to think about how we can use less wood.
In Uganda, people traditionally cook on three stones. Though easy to use, this system burns a lot of wood. One way to use less firewood is to build a simple stove around the three stones. Place your cooking pot on the stones and pour a little water over the stones, the pot and the surrounding ground. Make up a mixture of clay and cow dung and build up a mud wall around the stones to the top of the pot. The walls should be about 8–10cm thick with a gap of about 3cm between the pot and the mud wall to allow air to flow through the fire properly.
Leave the mud to dry until firm but not hard and then cut out a door for the firewood using a wet knife. This should be about 10cm wide and 15cm high. After the stove has dried out, you can smear it to cover any cracks. It is now ready to use.
You will find that now you will use much less firewood – about half as much as before. That’s good news for trees, the environment and for women and children who don’t need to spend so much time collecting firewood. Within a month of building the first stove, every family in our village was using one!
Alistair Seaman, 43 Weavers Way, Tillicoultry, Scotland, FK13 6BD.
An animator’s work
I see real progress beginning when people learn to take over their responsibilities. Always start with people first. Help them to understand the issues thoroughly. Usually a slow start will mean a better end. Visiting and talking with people takes a lot of time – there may be little time for office work! People may need to visit other areas and learn from the choices which they have made. They need to make decisions for themselves – not have them made for them by the ‘experts’.
For example, we obtained funding for a water project in one of our areas recently. We helped some of the villagers visit other shallow wells and bore wells in the district. The experts then provided all the options to the people. The choice was mainly between three bore wells which could be provided or 20 shallow hand-dug wells which would need help from the community. Training in the skills needed to build and repair the shallow wells would be provided. The people took time to make their decisions and to decide how to spend the money available. They chose to help with building shallow wells. Now there is real pride as people tell their children, ‘My bricks made this well’. And the community now have the skills to pass on to their children.
Communities which discuss things together openly can make real progress. The same goes for families too. Families which discuss together – and pray together – stay together.
Francis Gonahasa, Zonal Coordinator – Church of Uganda PRD Dept, PO Box 4, Mukono, Uganda.
Rubbish ideas?
I was recently introduced to Passo a Passo (Portuguese Footsteps) and I found its purpose of stimulating new ideas and encouraging people working with their communities, very interesting.
Last year we organised a seminar which brought together leaders from various projects concerned with World Vision to look at issues of land ownership and our environment. We had the support of the town council and staff from the University here. One staff member has a great sensitivity to social questions and has supported a ‘community forum’ to obtain the use of a large warehouse where poor people can collect and sort various types of rubbish for recycling.
I would like to receive Footsteps as it will help us in our discussions with the community leaders about environmental issues. We are living with many questions concerning our environment – recycling rubbish, community vegetable gardens, channelling small streams that pass through villages, the lack of rubbish collection in many places, etc. If any Footsteps readers can help us with ideas concerning these issues we would be pleased to hear from them.
Léa Beray Andrade, ACMG – World Vision, Caixa Postal 848, 30161-970 Belo Horizonte, MG – Brazil.
EDITOR: Roof-top and urban gardening and using worms in recycling rubbish, are ideas planned for issues later this year.
Caring for the earth
I am a refugee from Somalia, living in a refugee camp in Mombasa. On this earth, what matters most to mankind is the health of the earth, without which we cannot survive. However, environmental tragedies are taking place in many parts of the world. We often learn from our newspapers about dangerous chemicals, filthy rubbish, poor drainage and many other problems. Environmental groups often put pressure on scientists and warn them about what is happening. Companies who exploit our planet with suicidal policies should be prevented from their actions by Ministers and City Councils.
Who knows what would have happened to our earth today, if it were not for the struggles of environmental groups who care about our earth! In this camp, refugees have built a chimney to burn all the rubbish from the camp – we are doing what we can here.
Siad Hussein Sh Mohamed PO Box 98588 Mombasa Kenya
Benefits of agricultural training
Conception Alvarez is a 68 year old farmer from the community of Ojo de Agua in Honduras. He has nine children. He began to farm independently at the age of 22, wanting to control his own life with God’s help. He had some good results, more thanks to God’s mercy than his agricultural skills. His way of farming was very traditional, including burning all stalks and planting with a stick. There was nowhere that new ideas or techniques could be learnt.
He was the first farmer to try sowing sesame (ajonjoli) in the area. But soon his land began to lose its fertility. For many years he struggled with inadequate housing and little money, unable to improve things.
He continues the story: ‘In 1988 the group DIACONIA Nacional was established and began teaching new techniques to local farmers. Here I learnt various agricultural techniques which improved the life of my family.
Some of the techniques were controlling pests, green manures, applying organic materials, minimum cultivation of the soil, growing sesame, corn and yucca. These new ideas have produced changes in my life that everyone can see. Thanks to the planting of sesame, our economic situation has improved considerably. We now have a big house with a cement floor and brick walls and we run a small shop.
I thank God especially because he gave me the opportunity to begin this process which quickly changed my life. I would encourage everyone involved in similar activities to continue because they contribute to the development of farmers and so with the development of the whole country.’
Mauricio R Orellana, DIACONIA Nacional, CONSEDE, Apdo 4339, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Be observant!
Development workers and animators must not work in the dark. They need access to sources of information which can help answer the needs of their communities, as well as improving their political, social and cultural awareness. The political climate can either encourage or prevent effective development work.
In the Sahel, new developments in technology and science have helped research stations to reclaim some desert areas. However, politics prevents the results of this exciting work being transferred to the villages. In this area farmers have used the farro practice for many generations. This means that at the end of a long, dry period the soil is prepared and farmers sow the millet seed, hoping it will germinate when the rains come. We now have many years of drought and often the seeds rot and a new sowing has to be done. This traditional method is now often unsuccessful because the climate is changing. Scientists now know that a certain humidity is needed for the seeds to germinate. But although we have a meteorological station (weather station) in our area, they never pass essential information on to the farmers so that they know the best time for sowing millet. Again, politics prevents the passing on of useful information.
It is said that farmers in a rural environment are unwilling to change. Instead, I see that there is a real need to train farmers who are open to new ideas and techniques and to channel the results of research work through them. They need to bridge the gap between farmers and research stations. We need farmers trained in awareness to consider what is helpful to farmers in their communities and to provide them with the skills to pass on this information.
Nohoune Leye, PO Box 10, Khombole, Senegal Republic.
A tough doormat!
Here's a good idea seen on the doorstep of a a small hotel in Gulu, Uganda. Simply collect plenty of soda bottle tops. Nail them, sharp side up, to a strong piece of wood as closely as possible. Result – one very effective and tough doormat to keep mud out!