Refugee Charcoal Project in Goma - North Kivu, DRC

Dear Sir/Madam,

For the last few months this project has been facing many challenges and could not move forward but we still have hope that it will pick up.

The external challenges

The war that is drawing closer to Goma, in DRC has pushed so many people to come to Goma which is still the only safe zone, and these people are in very difficult situation lacking everything. The place were we made the Charcoal from has been invaded by the new arrivals and and new wave of IDPs,

Goma Town is more insecure currently and in order to survive the hash conditions some people are restoring to all forms of coppying mechanisms including taking whatever they found on their way, and for us this is normal. Most of our Charchoal already produced was taken a certain night by unidentified persons who break into the house and took everything including all our equipement. We received some information that these people were among the IDPs in the difficult situation, we understood that it was normal for them to do that in order to survive for the next few days, they sold off all these things we had in order to get food.

The security of the charcoal we are making and the security of the equipement is as per now a serious problem which needs serious investment. The model of this project was to make it a long-term activity in order to solve the community charcoal so that we can reduce pressure on Virunga National Parc, and also create employment to refugees and other members of the community. So the idea was to make it a long-term investiment, however the current humanitarian crisis in North Kivu and in Goma has affected it as people are in severe need of humanitarian relief aid including this charcoal in order to cook the food they get. We do not have funding that can make it one among the humanitarian interventions in Goma in order to produce enought charcoal and distribute to those in need.

Internal challenges

This project was being ran by refugees and few people from the host commiunities but again as the war draws closer, refugees are disappearing because they do not want to appear publicly as we known and weel identified refugees. Refugees believe that the M23 rebels are looking for anyone who is from Rwanda in order to kill them.

Lastly as we said, most of our equipment was taken by those who wanted to survive, this requires us to start again this project from zero. That is very fine.

Options

Our Chairperson of the Board of Director gave us a plot of land in Bulengo IDP Camp which can be used in order to continue this project, and in this camp at least those inside are already stable because they have been there for long, in case we get the funding this project can shift to this land,

The other option is to lent a fenced plot in Goma where we can make this charcoal from in a secured place but also this needs enough funding,

The last option is to continue the fundraising until when the war ends or when solutions are taken in order to help those who are in need so that our project can continue in the same place, but it will need to be secured,

Conclusion

We still believe in this project and we want it to continue, this war will finish and this project will move on, as per now we would like for more support in order to make it a humanitarian intervention that can provide charcoal to some vulnarable IDP groups of people.

Thanks

Report on our Refugee Charcoal Production in Goma the Democratic Republic of Congo. Slow progress of the project due to funding problems  

The refugee charcoal production is one among the activities we put in place in order restore the image of refugees, empower refugees to gain some money and make refugees part of the solutions on issues related to the protection of environment and climate change. Here refugees are accused by the host communities of so many things including the degradation of the environment and cutting of trees, we would like to change this and make refugees be praised and recognized as part of the solutions in the area.

The aim

This project aims at the environment protection by reducing the cutting of trees for cooking food at 78% in Goma and around Goma, it reduces home expenses on charcoal for cooking at 70% and therefore promotes home economy, it gives employment to a whole chain of people, and helps people to explore other alternatives for cooking.

How we do it

We just buy the remaining of the charcoal in most cases the wastage from the charcoal, we make them a powder or soft, we mixt in soil and other few things and then we produce the charcoal which people can easily use. The advantage of this is that the remaining of the charcoal is everywhere because threes have been cut over the years in order to make charcoal generally for cooking, so with this project we propose that we stop the cutting of trees and only use the remaining of trees that were cut and the remaining of the charcoal that have been used over the years, we recycle all these and then produce new charcoal.

Benefits

Currently a woman who was using 2,500 CF to buy charcoal in order to cook food at home is now using only 600 CF per day in order to cook food. It is giving employment opportunities to 13 people who in most cases did not have something to do, and four people currently involved in the selling. On top of that is imparting in people a life skill for themselves.

Funding

For the last three (3) months this project has not yet received funding most of the money invested in comes from our own contributions, last month we invested in 140$ in order to buy what is urgent. However the project needs funding in order to produce enough quality of charcoal and make a visible impact on ground.

People involved

A total number of 13 people are involved among them 10 refugees and three (3) Congolese from refugee host communities. They make the charcoal once per week and it total currently they are producing more than 300 pieces per day and each piece is sold at 100CF,

Demand from the market

Currently our charcoal is highly demanded by the local communities because as we have said it is much economic, on top of that Goma is surrounded by Internally Displaced Persons IDPs who also have problems to cook their food, actually efforts for IDPs to look for firewood is the leading main cause of rape of women and other forms of violence against women, so this charcoal could also focus on the protection of IDP women.

Future plan

We need to hire a big space where we can make the charcoal and dry it from,

We need funds in order to produce 1,000 pieces of Charcoal per day and at least three days a week,

We need more Forms which make the charcoal,

We need to buy the necessary materials,

We need allowances for those making it,

We need Tents, hire stores and deploy people in various places to sell the charcoal,

We need to train more other people how to make this charcoal and urgently start the charcoal production in IDP Camps around Goma,

We are calling upon your generous contribution and support, what is important is that once this project is fully funded it will continue generating money by itself over the years and therefore protect our environment,

Thanks

JP Mugaruka