By Joyce and Richard Stanley and Tracy Rice | Global Giving Project Coordinators
Greetings from Laguna de Apoyo, Nicaragua
Legacy Foundation is excited and pleased to announce that the first biomass briquette training was successfully held at Laguna de Apoyo, Nicaragua, from 24-28 February! We had a small but great turn out, trained some very talented and creative individuals and received a very optimistic response from the local community about the potential for biomass briquettes to replace firewood as a fuel.
We had invited the local officials from the Ministry of the Environment (MORENA) but despite their enthusiasm, they were apparently unable to participate in the training due to the visit of their national minister. Hopefully the local communities will now demonstrate to MORENA the potential of biomass briquettes.
We proceeded nonetheless to train five different groups:
• The Peace Project staff
• Potters for Peace Ceramic makers
• Branching Out Nicaragua extension staff
• A local hotel staff member and long time resident of Laguna de Apoyo
• A woman leader from Xiloa, a heavily populated and largely deforested subsistence community near Managua.
The participants learned which materials were good or not good for making briquettes. They tested their own various mixtures and were also given the direction and encouragement to find new and even better briquette recipes. They spent a substantial amount of time making briquettes and learning the fine points of production. They used different types of presses and material processing equipment (all of which was made and adapted for local reproduction, use and maintenance). They also analyzed the cost benefit and environmental impact of briquette usage over firewood and completed a cost-pricing analysis so that each participant knew what to factor into the cost of production and the price they could ask for their briquettes.
Finally, and armed with this knowledge, they went out in small groups into the community (shops, individuals, restaurants, hotels etc.) to solicit feedback. One group actually sold their briquette to a local restaurant! Needless to say, all were excited when that group returned and showed us the Cordobas (the official currency of Nicaragua) they earned –this is in less than an hour, with no previous introduction of the buyer to the product.
Through Richard's initial investigation of the viability of briquettes in Nicaragua, we had met Alex Urbina who had accumulated a wealth of knowledge through his own experience making and testing briquettes primarily from sawdust and waste paper. He had done an analysis about the calorific / cooking efficiency comparisons between firewood, charcoal and briquettes and discovered that his blends actually exceeded the performance of both wood and charcoal in water boiling tests, in terms of time to ignite, time to boil and duration of useful heat. He volunteered to join the trainees on the last day of training to present his data and to discuss his experience in briquette production and how they impact the surrounding communities. As a professional from the local community Alex’s presentation and lively discussion that followed, left the group very optimistic and made for a perfect closure to the week. The training officially ended with a grilled chicken lunch using briquettes to cook the chicken.
Based on the response of both the trainees and community, we are very optimistic that the project has potential to grow sustainably. We will continue to follow up with the participants and Miguel Angel Lopez, who made the metal presses, will now be the local coordinator of the project.
Richard and Joyce Stanley conducted the training and we would like to thank Tracy Rice for organizing this Global Giving Grant and for her valuable participation in the training. We thank you again for your support and we look forward to keeping you posted on the progress in Nicaragua. Please feel free to send us any questions you have about the training and about the follow up we will continue to provide to the project in Nicaragua.
Sincerely,
The Legacy Foundation Team
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