Clean Fuels and Cookstoves for Schools in Uganda

This year has been an exciting year for TCP and our friends in Rubaare, Uganda.  Kim and I are happy to announce that TCP has just formed a collaboration with MIT D-Lab called the Harvest Fuel Initiative.  Starting with initial funding of $100,000 from the D-Lab Scale-Ups program at MIT, HFI will provide capital, technical expertise and marketing support to small and medium sized entrepreneurs starting renewable biomass energy businesses.  The initiative will act as an incubator for these small businesses, supporting the growth and development of the alternative fuel briquette market, which is still in its early stages in many countries.  Initially, HFI will focus on businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa where forest degradation has led to spiraling wood and charcoal prices and a severe negative impact on the poor.  We are very excited about collaborating with D-Lab, which has a strong history of technology dissemination in the developing world, and look forward to sharing our project selection with you in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, we have made great strides on our project at the Rubaare Educational Foundation in Rubaare, Uganda.  I had the opportunity to visit Henry Twinemasko, REF Director, and the students at the school in October when I was in Africa.  Henry and the students are extremely grateful for all of the support you have given over the past two years.  This year, we have built a shelter for the briquette production operation, installed solar lights in one of the primary schools, and sent Henry on a training trip to one of our other projects to learn how to carbonize agricultural waste for use in the briquettes.  While on that trip, Henry was able to see a demonstration of a new type of institutional stove which will cut his fuel consumption by 70-80%.  Our short term goal is to raise the money to equip the main campus with these new stoves, and then eventually purchase stoves for the primary schools as well.