By Nancy Moore | Village Improvement Project Board Member
We have some really exciting news to share with you. The Cookstove Project has reached the final round in competition for a $300,000 grant from the Africa Energy Challenge Fund. This grant would be the seed money to launch our social enterprise business of assembling high-efficiency cookstoves to sell in Liberia.
Village Improvement Project’s Chairman of the Board, Dr. LeRoy Boikai, will be traveling to Liberia at the end of July to defend our proposal before the selection team from AECF. The final decision will happen in August. While Dr. Boikai is in Liberia he will also be conducting market research to identify which businesses, school and hospitals are most interested in purchasing high-efficiency stoves. If our proposal is approved, Dr. Boikai with be putting together a team to move the project forward. We have identified a potential property for an assembly plant suitable for cookstove production. In addition to acquiring a property, we will also need to hire and train workers and a sales staff. Lots to do but it feels great that we are so close to making the dream of producing eco-friendly cookstoves in Liberia built by Liberian workers come true.
Thank you so much for your generous support. Without you we wouldn’t be in a position to even apply for this grant. You are the best!
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