World Fuel from Waste Day – Alfastar Development Association in Kangemi

Ruth Githaiga of the Alfastar Development Association, will be running a briquette training and community building day tomorrow (May 28th) in Kangemi.

Along with representatives of the women’s groups trained in Westlands, Dagoretti and Kasarani during the lead-up to World Fuel from Waste Day. They will be doing demonstrations and training for the community. They will also be introducing a representative of a group from Western Kenya as a new facilitator and to show case their briquetting machine, which is another positive addition to the community briquetting technology landscape.

Representatives from the business community, the Hindi, Christian and Korean communities and the Nairobi International School, which promotes activities that build the capacities of vulnerable girls and women, will be joining the event.
Films, photographs and reports from the day will follow.

 

A lot to catch up on…

The Fuel from Waste Network has been busy. So busy, in fact, that we’ve not had a chance to update the blog for a while!

We’ll be remedying that asap. We have news of initiatives, actions, articles published, research, TV broadcasts and further development and refinement of future plans.

First up: Fuel from Waste is due to be featured on GBS TV Kenya’s “Waste Energy” feature on Saturday at 7.30. Have a look at the current feature and follow the link to catch that broadcast – http://gbskenya.com/waste-energy/

Drop in to our Youtube Channel for films showing the background and work of the Fuel from Waste Network: http://www.youtube.com/user/Fuelfromwaste

More, coming soon.

#WFfWDay Pictures

Some pictures of the events in Kenya and UK. More to come.

Fuel from Waste unConference 2011 – films launched

We’ve put together the footage of FfW 2011 into three playlists on youtube.com to help support World Fuel from Waste Day 2012.

They are:

1. The Participatory Design sessions

2. The Exhibition of equipment, machinery and demonstrations of techniques

3. The Voxpops of participants and visitors

Have a look.

Hopefully they will be helpful and understanding the area, the approach and the people involved, and will encourage others to link up with the movement.

1. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFA3B371DC750FACA

2. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC54FB39AF5A74086

3. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2C9395118BFBE1BF

Alfastar Development Association – Fuel from Waste Network News

Alfastar Development Association information and training session news

The Alfastar Development Association was started by Ruth Githaiga and Patrick Ngatia (Director AlfaStar Industries), in consultation with Wyn Griffiths (of the Fuel from Waste Network), following on from the creation of a ‘roadmap’ for the future of sustainable energy at a community level, developed at the Fuel from Waste unConference 2011.

Its focus is to develop a network for sustainable energy training and entrepreneurship, for community development. To help to promote the lives of the community partners, recycle and make sustainable energy available and affordable, while creating income and empowerment for vulnerable groups (eg women, youth, disabled). This will support, and be supported by, conservation of vegetation cover for future generations.

Currently the association has a membership of 75 women and 22 youths.

There are currently four groups within the association, in different localities in the country:

(1) Juja

(2) Gatundu

(3) Githunguri

(4) Limuru

All headed by women, with members awaiting training, as and when funding and support becomes available.

A training event was held on the 11^th and 12^th of May 2012 in Kariobagi South.

It was facilitated by the GVEP International  organised by Maurice Onzere and Phylis Kariuki.

Ruth Githaiga and Mr Mwangi trained the group on general briquetting and a simple carbonising system.

The training started with simple hand briquettes as most of those attending have to start from scratch, and a programme working through levels of briquetting production (from simple hand, through manual machine, to powered machine) has been designed and agreed.

Each level will be monitored and supported to achieve the appropriate quality within a set time period.

The long-term plan, through the Development Association and partnerships such as with Fuel from Waste, is to link up the network of Development Association producers being trained, with strong market demand, mediated through the commercial arm of Alfastar Industries. This would create a sustainable ecology, with multiple layers of benefit for all stakeholders.

For more information – contact Ruth Githaiga on tuzo2007@yahoo.com

Alfastar Development Association brochure:

This gives background on the industry and prices for briquettes and commercial training.

Alfastar Development Brochure and FfW – May 2012 Version

World Fuel from Waste Day 2012 – May 28th – Get involved

Plans are settling for events to mark World Fuel from Waste Day (#WFfWDay) 2012.

The day was proposed, and supported at the Fuel from Waste unConference 2011, as an annual date to highlight the issues and celebrate the great work happening around community-based sustainable energy, sustainable employment and waste management.

Events this year will take place on May 28th, as the 27th is a Sunday.

We have events planned in Nairobi and London, and are hoping to confirm more locations.

We’ll post up details soon. So, if you’d like to get involved, or have ideas for events you’d like to run, contact Wyn Griffiths on w.griffiths@mdx.ac.uk

Fuel from Waste Participant News – Francis Kiilu – Community Waste Management and Briquetting

Kibera garbage - By Chrissy Olsen - used via a Creative Commons licence

This community group works under a church set up by the name “Recovery and Hope Ministries”.

Francis Kiilu, a Fuel from Waste participant and active member of the movement,  is the leader of the ministry and they have five branches in Kenya:

–       Nairobi (Kibera slums)

–       Mt. Elgon

–       Three  eastern province Matuu, Makutano and Machakos towns.

All the branches are involved in community activities. Nairobi (Kibera slums) branch is the youngest and the activities there focus on are the reduction of discarded solid waste into gain and small business enterprises. There is proposed activity of vocational training plus academic school to help to move toward the Kenya Vision 2030 http://www.vision2030.go.ke/

Francis Kiilu explains the plan:

“REDUCTION OF FORMATION OF SOLID WASTE INTO GAIN

The plans we have are to buy plastic bags and distribute them to few plots surrounding our church. Train the people how to separate waste materials as they pack them in the separated bags supplied. The aim being to sell the materials, which can be recycled, turn into briquette the materials which can burn and sell the food surplus to pigs farms. At the moment we are contributing money towards the purchase of the plastic bags and briquette press machine. The moment we shall be well set for the activity.”

Contact Francis Kiilu at ‘Recovery and Hope Ministries’: recoveryandhopeministries@yahoo.com

Fuel from Waste 2011 Participant News – Fuel from Waste Leads World Volunteers Day march in Nairobi

The Hut of Orphans of Kenya, a ‘Fuel from Waste’ network champion, and other associated groups, led the march in World Volunteers Day, in Nairobi.

Have a look at their blog – http://thehookenya.blogspot.com/ for more of the initiatives, or at the following links, for clips of the march:

WVD starting off – http://youtu.be/7dhk7eh3Rck

WVD being led off by FfW – http://youtu.be/jmc6GOz4jQE

FfW leading on… and tumblers 🙂 – http://youtu.be/05LATti3sq4

Great work by all.

James Ochieng of the Hut of Orphans of Kenya, reflecting on recent initiatives says:

“We here at the Hut of Orphans of Kenya are glad to have been able to use the banner for our Freedom of Information Project. We have been able to talk about briquettes as a sustainable fuel.  We wanted to emphasize the right to information as an indispensable component to the right of a clean and safe enviroment
Most locations as you already know are choking with litter. We believe that the Fuel from Waste Network has already started making impact. There is collection sorting and using of charcoal dust, saw dust etc. We are looking forward to a productive 2012. We shall continue with this work after the festive season. We had a lot of Fun filled days, we met a lot of people, we learnt from them we talked to them about fuel from waste. Most of them have already engaged FfW activity in their own way. “