This Month at JEEP – 07.2022
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.
This July was another month fully packed of field work. Our Energy Officer went to Zombo once more to check up on the energy hubs (small shops designed to sell energy-related products, with a focus on renewable energy, and efficient use of energy. Examples could be solar lamps, fireless cooking baskets, solar cells,… ). The hubs were provided with solar cells on their roofs and stocked with the necessary equipment and products. Then they were handed over to the local community groups that will run them. (See pictures below.)
Meanwhile, our Training Officer together with most of our volunteers, other supporting staff at JEEP and local members, held – as part of the Response to Increased Environmental Degradation and Promotion of Alternative Energy Sources in Refugee Hosting Districts (RED) project – several trainings about energy efficient stoves, fireless baskets and how to make them, all across multiple districts (Adjumani, Njumbe, Arua,…). (See pictures below.)
At the Folkecenter, we were happy to welcome Clarke Junior School from Muyege, Kampala. As part of their annual excursions, they were introduced to Joint Energy and Environment Projects (JEEP), its Mission, Vision and activities at large. For this, we organized a tour with different stations, the first station covered everything about solar energy, emphasizing why solar power is important for the future of our planet and providing information about why we need renewable energies in general. The next station took a more detailed look at cooking technologies in line with JEEP’s mission to efficiently manage local resources (like firewood, but also electricity,..). Examples of this are the Energy saving stoves made from anthill soil and grass, solar cookers, solar powered pressure cookers,… Additionally, making briquettes was discussed and how we can recycle waste. Going on, we displayed how urban gardening can take place and talked about how to efficiently manage and successfully grow small gardens. Other stops discussed the products produced by our small enterprise. This could be the fireless cooking baskets, but also herbal soap, Vaseline, liquid soap to mention but a few. (See pictures below.)
In the meantime, our conference hall served as a gathering point for the a joint effort from UCSD and JEEP to talk about a fossil-free future and present electric bikes and their advantages to local Bodaboda drivers.
Last but not least, we are thankful for the pull-up banner provided by Robert Kimbowa from Uganda Coalition of Sustainable Development (UCSD), proclaiming the beautiful localsolutions catalogue to all our visitors at the office!
Join us in our quest to become a greener planet! Thanks for tuning in, until next time.