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Posts Tagged ‘charcoal’

Ugandan Brothers’ Mango Project

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on July 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Photo: John Okot.
A volunteer for The Mango Project places mango slices in a solar dryer for preservation in Midigo, Uganda, where malnutrition is a serious issue.

One of my grandsons has had an interest in Uganda for several years — first, through learning about endangered mountain gorillas, then through helping support a start-up water business in the country. As a result, I pay extra attention to Ugandan news.

John Okot reports at the Christian Science Monitor about two brothers in Uganda who launched a mango initiative to help their neighbors.

“Francis Asiku’s plan to fight hunger in his village began, quite naturally, under a bountiful mango tree. It was 2011, and he had just landed his first nursing job at Midigo Health Centre IV in Yumbe district in northern Uganda. He was excited and joyful. But in his first month at work, Mr. Asiku was surprised to learn that what many infants and expectant mothers seeking care needed wasn’t necessarily medicine. It was nutritious food.

“He recalls one hot afternoon, in particular, when a young mother rushed into the health center with a 4-year-old child in her arms. Mr. Asiku hurried to help. He quickly diagnosed poor feeding as the root of the child’s problem. …

“He headed home on a dirt road in the inky-dark evening. When he spotted birds feasting on rotting mangoes along his path, a question struck him: Why were so many people in his community malnourished when it experienced two plentiful mango seasons a year?

“He raised the issue later that night with his younger brother, farmer Emmanuel Mao. Soon afterward, the brothers met with village elders under the huge mango tree where community meetings were held. That was the start of their nonprofit, The Mango Project, which distributes glass jars full of mangoes to schools, to health centers, and directly to hungry individuals.

“The toll of hunger in Uganda is staggering, according to the Global Hunger Index, a report published by several global nonprofits. Almost 37% of the population is undernourished, and about one-quarter of children have stunting, a condition that is associated with malnutrition.

“When Mr. Asiku and Mr. Mao met with the Midigo elders, [they said] the brothers needed to figure out a way to preserve Midigo’s abundant mangoes throughout dry periods, when they are scarce. …

“Mr. Asiku and Mr. Mao embarked on researching a simple way to preserve food. They began ‘jarrying’ – cutting fruit pulp into thin slices and putting them in a glass container of boiling-hot water and sugar. While canning is practiced throughout the world, many Midigo villagers can’t afford sugar, not to mention glass jars with secure lids. The relatively easy preservation method – and the brothers’ fundraising efforts to obtain the necessary supplies – delighted village elders. …

“The brothers initially collected mangoes that were scattered throughout the village, but have since expanded their initiative to preserve the fruit from their family’s ancestral land. The jarred fruit is safe to eat for up to a year.

“Mr. Asiku knows that the mangoes alone will not end malnutrition in the community, since humans need a balanced diet. But the initiative, he says, is a great start to breaking the hunger cycle in Midigo. …

“Irene Andruzu, who supervises one of the Midigo Health Centre’s facilities, says she receives at least 50 jars of mangoes monthly to help malnourished patients. During the pandemic alone, more than 12,000 jars of mangoes were distributed to health clinics and refugee settlements.

“Scovia Anderu, a social worker for Calvary Chapel Midigo, lauds The Mango Project for instructing villagers. She says that most villagers lack knowledge about nutrition and that there are few qualified personnel who can educate them on the subject at the grassroots.

“Zuberi Ojjo, the district health officer for Yumbe, [says] The Mango Project ‘reminds people of the importance of nutrition to our well-being.’ …

“One obstacle for The Mango Project is that charcoal, which is needed to heat the water used to sterilize jars, can be difficult to obtain. Since 2023, the government has banned commercial charcoal production in the northern region over concerns about the alarming depletion of trees there. Nevertheless, illegal, large-scale tree-cutting has disrupted weather patterns in the region, where communities rely mainly on agriculture amid erratic, unpredictable rainfall. …

“Mr. Asiku has found one alternate form of fuel. Over the years, he has been scrimping and saving, and last year he purchased a solar-powered dryer worth $600. Besides mangoes, he dries vegetables such as okra and eggplant to give to villagers.

“He hopes to distribute the food more widely as he acquires a license from the government to do so – and more dryers. He also has an orchard with 310 hybrid mango trees. This is meant to supplement the seasonal mangoes in case there is low supply because of damage caused by fruit flies.

“ ‘It’s fulfilling to see my people smiling at the end of the day,’ Mr. Asiku says.”

More at the Monitor, here.

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Why He Fights Charcoal-Making

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on March 8, 2022| 3 Comments »

Photo: Alhaji Siraj Bah via CNN.
Alhaji Siraj Bah makes eco-friendly products in Sierra Leone.

In many parts of the world, when people have no way to heat their homes or cook, they cut down trees to make charcoal, leading to a whole series of other problems. In Sierra Leone, Alhaji Siraj Bah learned that lesson as a kid, and never forgot it.

Danielle Paquette writes at the Washington Post, “Their house was gone. They weren’t at the hospital or the morgue. Even as he searched the news for their faces, the teenager knew: His adopted family — the people who’d given him a bed when he was sleeping under a bridge — didn’t survive the mudslide.

“Three days of downpours, heavy for Sierra Leone’s rainy season, had given way to reddish brown muck streaming down the residential slopes of Sugarloaf mountain. Sinkholes opened. People in this hilly capital reported hearing a crack— like thunder, or a bomb — before the earth collapsed.

“Alhaji Siraj Bah, now 22, might have been there that August morning in 2017 if his boss had not put him on the night shift. He might have been sharing a bedroom with his best friend, Abdul, who he called ‘brother.’

“Instead he was sweeping the floor of a drinking water plant when 1,141 people died or went missing, including Abdul’s family.

“ ‘All I felt was helpless,’ he said, ‘so I put my attention into finding ways to help.’

“Four years later, Bah runs his own business with nearly three dozen employees and an ambitious goal: Reduce the felling of Sierra Leone’s trees — a loss that scientists say amplifies the mudslide risk — by encouraging his neighbors to swap wood-based charcoal for a substitute made from coconut scraps. Heaps of shells and husks discarded by juice sellers around Freetown provide an energy source that requires no chopping.

“His enterprise, Rugsal Trading, has now produced roughly 100 tons of coconut briquettes, which, studies show, burn longer for families who do most of their cooking on small outdoor stoves. One report in the Philippines found that a ton of charcoal look-alikes fashioned from natural waste was equivalent to sparing up to 88 trees with 10-centimeter trunks.

“ ‘My motivation is: The bigger we grow, the more we can save our trees,’ Bah said on a steamy afternoon in the capital, chatting between coconut waste collection stops. ‘The hardest part is getting the word out about this alternative. Everyone loves charcoal.’

“Researchers weren’t sure what triggered the worst natural disaster in the West African country’s history, but some pointed to Sugarloaf mountain’s vanishing greenery. Deforestation not only releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — it weakens slopes. Canopies are critical for soaking up rain and taming floods. Roots anchor the soil together. …

“ ‘After [the flood], he was always on YouTube,’ said Foday Conteh, 23, who met Bah when they were both living on the street. ‘He became obsessed with looking for ways to stop deforestation.’

“Bah, 17 at this point, saw a video of a man in Indonesia who crafted charcoal replacements from coconut shells. Others were doing something similar in Ghana and Kenya: Collecting coconut scraps, drying them out in the sun, grinding them down, charring them in steel drums.

“He watched the makers mix the blackened powder with binders like cassava flour and then feed the dough into a machine that spits out matte loaves. Next came slicing the loaves into cubes. You could grill with them the same way — except a coconut aroma fills the air.

“ ‘It looked like a great business idea,’ Bah said. ‘I could make fuel with stuff we find on the street.’ …

“He kept researching the concept on his boss’s computer. The [briquette] machine cost about $3,000, so Bah asked for more hours and a raise. … The wages alone weren’t enough, spurring him to follow the blueprint of another young entrepreneur he’d read about in Uganda who’d started a recycled bag business with $18. Bah saved up for scissors and glue. He visited shops around town, offering to sell bags fashioned from discarded paper for customers who would pay half up front.

“One hotel manager agreed, and Bah suddenly had the capital to make a thousand bags. The order took five days to complete and netted him $100. More clients emerged. Within a few months, he bought the machine he needed to churn out the coconut briquettes. …

“ ‘I was a homeless boy,’ Bah [says today], ‘and now, on a good month, we do $11,000 in revenue.’ …

“Deforestation still worries him. Charcoal remains king in Africa — the continent accounts for 65 percent of global charcoal production — and people haven’t stopped hacking down trees on Sugarloaf mountain. Sierra Leone’s president was among the 100 world leaders who vowed to halt deforestation by 2030 at this year’s United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, and Bah hopes he sticks to his word.

“ ‘We have a lot more to do.’ “

Although I would love to see more solar stoves and less burning of any kind of material, I have to admire this young man’s ecological awareness and his determination to improve the world. Read about the challenges he had to overcome at the Post, here.

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