ArboRise wins 3rd place at the “Prix Diaspora” of the Fedevaco !
The Diaspora and Development Prize is an initiative of the Federation of Cooperation of the Canton de Vaud, which aims to promote the involvement of the canton’s diasporas in the development of their countries of origin. Through this award, which takes place every two years, Fedevaco aims to increase the impact of diasporas in their home and host countries and to strengthen their position as actors of cooperation and sustainable development.
Since our vice-president, Mariame Camara, is originally from Guinea, it seemed relevant to us that arboRise submitted her application, which was accepted by Fedevaco (see the publication of 20 October 2021). We were thus able to follow the seven high-quality training modules and develop our development project in parallel, of which the following is a summary (the document is available on request):
In sub-Saharan Africa most urban families use charcoal for cooking. The nuisance for them is high and the recurring costs are high as well. On a global level, turning trees into charcoal is a major deforestation factor and increases global warming.
As an alternative, we recommend biogas, which works like a cow’s stomach: vegetable waste is introduced into a sealed tank – the biodigester – which converts it into methane, which is used for cooking instead of coal. The liquid that remains – the digestate – is an excellent fertiliser, also useful for fish farming. A few kilos of waste per day make a family self-sufficient. This saves them the cost of buying bags of charcoal, which represent about 10% of their annual expenses.
Our project aims to develop a small domestic biodigester production unit in Conakry with a technician trained in Burkina Faso, to sell this equipment to families on the outskirts of the city, who cook in an open yard and have access to vegetable waste. The production of a biodigester costs CHF 125/piece and will be totally made in Guinea.
A demonstrator will present the advantages of our solution at meetings of women’s associations in each neighbourhood. After two weeks of testing, each interested housewife will be able to purchase the biodigester with a system of staggered payments. In 18 months she will be the owner and will then save the cost of buying coal.
In addition to recycling vegetable waste (offcuts from market gardening), our technique will also provide organic fertiliser to farmers on the outskirts of Conakry, while reducing deforestation.
We are starting this year with a pilot phase to check the feasibility and feel the reaction of the market. We need CHF 6’000 to pre-finance the first 50 biodigesters.
Competing in the category of social economy projects, our domestic biodigester project was chosen by the Diaspora Prize Jury for its simplicity and ecological contribution.
This distinction honours us and we warmly thank Fedevaco for the organisation of this Prize. In addition to the lessons learnt from the training course, it also allowed us to meet some really great people. The passion and commitment of all 14 project leaders must be acknowledged here. Congratulations also to the other 3 winners!
