Refugee Charcoal Project in Goma - North Kivu, DRC

Charcoal Project

For the last three months, the Charcoal Project has not been doing well because Internally Displaced Persons took all what we had produced and this affected our activities, and unfortunately we did not have more funding.

The charcoal we produce is an alternative to the cooking problem in Goma, Doctors Without Borders are making alarm every day that 60% of IDP women abused sexually are victims where they are collecting firewood in order to cook food.

For this project to continue we need funds which will help us to hire a place which is in fence, buy tents in which we can keep them, and have a small car which can transport them to various destinations where people can buy them.

We still hope that despite the challenges, there also opportunities which we can capitalize in order to revive this project and save lives of so many women who are at risk. Once women have this first of all good quality charcoal, cheap and which take long and use in small quantity, they will not go to risky places to look for firewood.

Charcoal Project is currently on hold until we get more funding, our major priority is to raise funds and then get started again

This project has been facing the following problems:

Space: This project needs a safe space where people can make the charcoal from, we have not yet managed to raise funding for this space. This safe space should also serve as place to dry the charcoal from and to store the charcoal from. We have not yet managed to do this. The problem is that after making the charcoal children could play around them and destroyed a lot every day, then in terms of storing where it was kept people could come either at night or during day time and steal it, actually we experienced two times the break into the house just to steal the charcoal and the materials which we used.

Materials: In order to produce a big quantity which is needed to respond to the demands, to sustain this project and pay some allowances to all those involved, we needed the necessary equipment which we do not have up to now,

Shops and Transportation: Now the charcoal also needed us to have some small shops in various areas in Goma where people can come and buy it from, this also required that we have in place the means of transport which can easily and quickly supply the charcoal once is needed,

Insecurity due to war: The project was based in areas that are currently highly militarized and people involved did not feel safe to work from there.

In brief all these challenges are related to funding in order to continue with this project, unfortunately we have not yet been able to get the needed money. However this project will continue and believe it will achieve its objectives.