Monthly Newsletter September 2022
JEEP strives to stop environmental destruction and promote efficient management of natural resources. The newsletter gives a monthly overview of our activities towards this mission. It provides small updates about project activities and gives insights about the events at our Folkecenter itself in the hope that the curious reader finds information worth knowing.
Soap and Briquettes
This September, JEEP staff were privileged to participate in a number of amazing activities that advanced prosperity, health and livelihood of people in Uganda, especially Adjumani and Zombo district under the JEEP Green Ambassadors Club and Eco-pesa projects.
In mid-September, the pupils of Atiak Primary School, Owinyo Pielo Primary School, Kaya Primary School, Jopomwocho Primary School (Zombo district) were – in engaging sessions – trained life skills, more specifically the making of herbal soap and charcoal briquette. These skills are essential for the livelihoods of these communities because they serve as a way of income generation by selling these products. Additionally, the herbal soap enhances the hygiene and overall health of the people through protection from skin diseases. During the training, the pupils were able to identify locally occurring herbs that could be used for the prevention of skin diseases. This was followed by a training session on how to actually produce the soap by extracting and mixing the right proportions of different ingredients. The expected outcome for the communities is to save the money that would rather be spent on the procurement of these products while earning livelihood.
To mitigate the heavy deforestation and massive cutting of trees in the area, these communities deserve to be trained in more energy saving technologies; hence the need to acquire the skill of charcoal briquette making for the community. By using charcoal dust (a waste material of charcoal) to make a viable fuel source, stress on local forests is reduced. These school trainings were organized for those who had already established Environment Clubs for their pupils. The schools were later left with the capacity to source the raw materials for ingredients and were availed all the tools for the production of the products they were trained in. All the ingredients were locally available in the communities and the schools.
Nursery bed establishment
While in the same period of time, communities in Zombo district were trained in the establishment of tree nursery beds. A total of four beneficiary communities were selected. These included two primary schools and two community centres where communities could access the beds for inquiries, demonstrations and advice from the people running the beds. The available trees/tree seedlings in the nursery beds are, among others, grivelia, Eucalyptus, pine and cyprus. The participants were trained on how to technically erect the shed and whole nursery structure, including the (responsible) use of pesticides, potting holes, fertilizers, and fungicides. These trainings were very engaging and the participants were incredibly happy to participate in the process. In the end, the communities were left with fully functional and sustainable beds.
CEO and Head of Programmes travel to Adjumani district
JEEP’s CEO and JEEP’s Head of Programs carried out an evaluation and follow up of the activities of the field staff in Adjumani at month’s end to see the progress of the projects’ implementations, that is the encouraging of communities to reduce on cutting down trees and reduce environmental degradation to create a (more) sustainable community.
depth of the contributions of the organization towards encouraging communities to reduce on cutting down trees so as to achieve the reduction of environmental degradation and create a sustainable community for the people. The team checked out the different stoves built in communities and ascertained that their usage is according to instructions while maintaining the stoves so as to maximize durability and longevity.
Stove constructions
Finally, JEEP instructors and community resource persons installed 16 energy saving and shielded stoves for trainings and demo purposes. While meeting some challenges due to a rainy season and, as a result, inaccessible roads, the stoves ended up perfectly. During the training, discussions were held on advantages and disadvantages of energy saving stoves, materials and requirements for making stoves, procedures and the process of stove construction, questions and answers, among others.
Join us in our quest to become a greener planet! Thanks for tuning in, until next time.
