Building simple manufacturing presses and skilling women on making and sale of briquettes will drive both significant income and significant improvement in household health. The first phase of this project will meaningfully increase income for 200 families and impact 100 additional lives with better income security. On population health, we estimate the work will reduce smoke-related negative health in 5,000 people by (75%). A secondary benefit will contribute to slowing deforestation.
Rural women in Uganda struggle to earn 1 dollar a day and have limited ways to earn daily income outside of the growing seasons. By relying on agricultural produce to earn income, a woman will have sellable produce after a full season (approximately 3 months). Over 90% of households both in rural and urban areas in Uganda use either firewood or charcoal or both as energy for cooking and in poultry production. One of the income generating opportunities is making and selling briquettes.
The women will be trained to make briquettes. The model is unique in such a way that the women gain skills on waste material carbonization, briquetting making processes, quality assurance of the carbonated materials, briquette making using simple tools for small production, and business skills to aid them in selling the briquettes
The project will skill 200 women to earn 1 dollar a day and will have effect up to 5000 other community members. When women get engaged in producing, using and selling briquettes they will earn income and can do so more regularly and experience less smoke in the kitchen. There is a secondary benefit around natural resource sustainability health of the planet. Across these different benefits, briquette making, marketing and use elevates the women, their families and the communities they live in.
This project has provided additional documentation in a DOCX file (projdoc.docx).
