Building a Stove: The Final Installment PHOTOGRAPHS

Mud Recipe:
For every two parts soil add one part grass
Add water
Mix vigorously with your feet

















Muddy mixing feet
























Rolling Mud into a ball.

























The working pile that the mud was flung onto.
























Banana husks before they are shaped. They were cut out in the village of Namwendwu and transported to the dorm via bicycle.

















Cutting the banana husks into the appropriate shapes.

























Creating the chimney from Banana husks.


















Banana husk air duct. This piece is placed between the two middle burners.

























Simon, the builder, planning out the stove. In the back the chimney piece is put into place.

















Throwing mud into the stove shape.


















The final product! The burner to the far right will be used for the meal, the one directly next to it near the chimney will be used for water. Finally the last one will be used for veggies!

The two banana husks in the front of the stove will be were the charcoal/wood is fed into.



All photos by Sarah Morris

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Building a Stove: The Final Installment VIDEOS

Building a stove of this size is an all-day endeavour. Our day began at 7am sharp! We first started by preparing the mud.

Mud Recipe:
Two parts soil for every one part of grass
Add water gradually
Mix vigorously with your feet

The mud isn't just any type of mud--it is mixed to the perfect consistency. It's like mixing cake batter--if everything isn't proportional the cake won't rise. If the mud is watery it won't hold its form and if it is too dry it will crack very easily. The mud is constantly folded, mixed, and mashed. It takes a rhythmic stomping to make good mud. Once all parts are thoroughly incorporated the mud is rolled into large clumps and moved to the work space. Now I'm unsure if throwing the mud into a pile is necessary, but it is certainly fun! With all our might we each took turns hurling mud into our working pile.

Next the banana husks are shaped into the molds for various parts of the stove. The size and shape of the banana husks are essential to the overall structure and integrity of the stove. The mud will be molded around them and allowed to harden for two months. When the stove has its first fire whatever remains will simply burn away. All of the essential air ducts of the stove are molded with banana husks. Using a machete and easy to remember measurements such as the width of your hand each banana husk piece is formed.

After literally slinging mud we plan out the dimensions of this massive stove. It will consist of three individual burners-- one for the main meal, one for veggies, and one for boiling water. All three burners will be fed by two charcoal/wood openings, and will all exhaust out the same chimney. It takes a lot of thought and planning due to the fact that the hot air must travel efficiently through the stove to keep all the burners red hot. After sizing, measuring, and drawing the plan the banana husks are put into place on top of a base of mud that is aggressively thrown into place.

As the stove is built upwards rocks are added into various parts. The rocks will help conduct heat throughout the stove. The stove will be able to maintain a high temperature for a longer period of time, and will require less fuel. The mud is molded and shaped around the various banana molds, as well as, the saucepans that will be eventually be used for cooking. The saucepans allows the builder, Simon, to make the burners the exact size they need to be. They will remain in place for about seven days.

After the mud is thrown into place the final touches begin. Smoothing, leveling, and filling in the gaps around the stove. Using a machete as if it were a paint brush Simon, the builder, smooths the surface of the stove. Occasionally dipping it in water to make the mud slide across the surface more easily. This is a long and tedious process that cannot be taken lightly. The stove must be level for stability. The cracks are filled in and smoothed over. A constant back and forth for over an hour. Finally, Simon steps away from the stove and gives me a thumbs up.

The stove will be ready to use in January. It takes nearly two months to dry properly. Naturally cracks occur during the drying process, but can be easily mended. Now let's eat!

*Note: the videos do not have audio
*Photos are posted in an additional blog

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Building a Stove Pt. 2

Today's installment of Building a Stove revolves around grass. Grass is essential to building a fuel efficient stove. It adds strength a durability to the mud mixture that the stove is sculpted out of. The type of grass is very important as well. It needs to be tall, thick grass that is hard to rip apart. It is also the kind of grass that itches and cuts you up a bit!

So Franco, Madia, Nasimu, Brian, and I all headed down to the fields and harvested two big bags of grass. It was a very itchy experience! After packing our sacks full they were carried over to the Model farm. The sack was almost as big as Nasimu, and yet she carried it on her head looking poised the whole way!

Then it gets chopped up into small pieces so that it will more easily incorporate with the soil.

Stay tuned for the final installment of Build a Stove featuring how to make mud, and how to shape a stove!

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Building a Stove Pt. 1

Today, Franco and I headed out to collect the materials necessary to build a fuel-efficient stove for the dorm. We focused on collecting soil today. The soil we collected for the stove comes from a termite and white ant mound. Due to the elasticity of this particular soil it is perfect for making stoves. It will not crack over time due to the fact that it can expand and contract with heat.
Hidija & Nasimu were in the area and came out to help! They helped carry bag after bag of soil up to the model farm.
























As seen in upper left-hand picture, the girls would twist the excess bag to make a cushion for their heads. Then with a swift motion place the bag onto their heads and off they went! After about two hours of digging, collecting, and moving we had enough soil to build a large stove for the dorm. Tomorrow, Franco and I will be collecting the second ingredient: Grass. Keep an eye out for building a stove Pt. 2 coming soon!
















Pictured above is the soil plus a few termites. The termites are essential to making the soil the perfect consistency.

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Work & Play

Jambo!
This weekend was filled with excitement and learning! Saturday was a day based around our dorm. The kids, Franco, and I all got our hands dirty to make the compound look sharp. We built walls around our beautiful flower beds, and even planted some flowers the kids brought from home. Immaculate brought a beautiful bush with red flowers, and Ester brought a tomato plant! The whole compound looks very smart.

After a morning of work we sat on the front porch reading books. We read a book Ester brought called Mother & Kitty and also looked through a dictionary of science definitions Hanifa brought! We read, laughed, and discussed several words in detail pointing out examples around our dorm. Soon we relaxed in the shade of our courtyard tree eating fruits brought by the children. They were delicious!

















Then we began to play! Some of the children stayed the whole afternoon playing a variety of games. We jumped, skipped, and ran all afternoon. It was hard for me to keep up! After a long hot day I was glad for an afternoon rain which cooled everything and especially me down. After a long day full of work and play a quiet evening was a welcome respite.

On another note, I apologize for the blue text up top. When I inserted some of the photos it turned the text blue and was being very stubborn. I apologize for the inconvenience. All photos by Sarah Morris.

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Village Leaders

Jambo!

Yesterday, I went around the town of Kamuli on the back of Kaiso's Boda-Boda (motorcycle) and met with several of the town officials to discuss our dorm. It was a wonderful experience! All of the local leaders welcomed me warmly, as did the Headmaster of Kamuli Township School and the Deputy Head Master of St. Theresa. I think it is imperative for us to make connections, and show the community that we are taking the appropriate steps forward with the dorm.

Also yesterday, several of the girls stopped by to show my their test reports. I'm happy to report that all of the girls are doing exceedingly well, and I firmly believe that they will finish this school year strongly. GO GIRLS!

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Our Dorm

Greetings from Kamuli!
As I sit here drinking my morning tea with a delicious Rolex (chipati and egg wrap) I thought I would fill you in on this weekend.

I arrived on Friday from Jinja with Dr. Frank. When we pulled up to the dorm I was astonished at all the progress made. The construction is finished and most of the construction supplies have been removed. Monica prepared us a lovely meal of rice and beef as Frank and I settled in. Soon after Lucie arrived and helped me establish my room. After a quick bite to eat I headed off to bed.

Saturday morning I awoke at about half past six and readied myself for the day. At eight-thirty many of the children began to show up to the dorm. We established a plan of attack and started to scrub our dorm. Room by room we scrubbed our dorm clean until it shined! After a hard days work we all relaxed under the tree in the courtyard with juice and cakes. Also, we played with the new dorm computer! Everyone who cleaned had a turn using the computer to write their name, age, and grade. One by one the kids headed home after a good day and will be coming next Saturday to plant flowers around the perimeter of our dorm.

Sunday was a casual day. I took advantage of the fact that I could have a nice long sleep-in! After a mellow afternoon Lucie and I headed towards the meeting hall to watch the Manchester United versus Liverpool soccer match. The match was projected on the wall and we cheered on Manchester United with a crowd of 100+ people. Although Manchester United lost I had a wonderful time, but was happy to break out of the crowd for some fresh air!

Now here we are at the beginning of another busy day in Kamuli. More tomorrow plus some pictures of the fun we had with the laptop!

Cheers!

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Dorm Construction Video

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Ecominc Survival A Major Threat To Environmental Conservation In Kamuli.

Changing weather patterns are a challenge and threat to the human race in the present world more than ever before. Day to day man’s activities have directly or indirectly contributed to the deterioration of weather patterns.

Economic survival in Uganda is tougher today than ever before. This has compelled the population to engage in any activity which will improve their economic wellbeing with no or minimal regard to its environmental impact. Among the many activities that have been on the increase with minimal regard to its environmental impact is brick making.

Focus on brick making:
One of the most noticeable features as one moves around the villages surrounding Kamuli town are giant piles of bricks organized into a sort of oven, ready for firing. The amount of fire wood required to fire and harden bricks in a single oven is enormous.

The growing construction industry in Kamuli town is fueling the demand for bricks. Bricks are a key component in modern building construction. Before the use of bricks, wattle, poles and mud were used.
Among the youth, brick making is looked at as a quick way of making a living compared to traditional activities like agriculture. For many youth, agriculture is perceived as tiring, time consuming, and unreliable especially in the face of unpredictable weather patterns and absolute reliance on hand farming tools like hoes, machetes, etc.
At a cost of about 70shs per brick, a brick maker stands a chance

of making close to $ 70 ( shs 140,000) for a single oven with 2000 bricks made in a period of less than 2 months. With such levels of profitability, brick makers have been depleting trees in their localities to maintain their business. “If I see a good tree in some body’s land, I will buy it from him, make timber out of it and use the remains to fire my bricks.” explains a brick maker only identified as Waiswa. Few community members can decline trading their trees for money.

Big fruit trees like mangoes and jack fruit trees have not survived the determination of brick makers to provide wood for their businesses. It is common to find a fruit trees rid of all its branches. This implies that the tree cannot produce fruit until branches re-develop. Many families rely on fruit trees food. This trend of events is likely to interfere with the nutritional needs of many families and the most affected are kids.

For as long as the demand for fired bricks prevails, environmental degradation through deforestation will prevail unless intervention and mitigation plans are sought and implemented.

Intervention Plans:
The 52kids foundation through its "environmental recovery movement" is creating awareness in the communities it is involved about environmental conservation. Among the campaigns it has carried out is the “ plant a multi-purpose tree campaign” in which fruit shade trees were distributed to and planted by the 52 kids guardians in their homes. The campaign involved increasing the survival chances of the planted trees by erecting a fence around the tree to keep off domestic animals from eating up the tree leaves.

The foundation intends to encourage replanting of local species of trees by using locally available tree seeds. The 52 kids foundation and its partner Local nonprofit organization KAPIDA have worked with communities in Nawigulu sub county Kamuli district to promote fuel efficient stoves to save the number of trees cut down to provide wood fuel for domestic use and encouraged agro forestry

On many occasions the fact that specific challenges require specific interventions means that to reduce the impact of brick making on deforestation, technology to provide alternative bricks to fired bricks needs to be made available to local communities. For now, more trees will be lost to firing bricks in Kamuli by the day after all the demand for bricks remains high.

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Buwanzu community sustains 52kids established water project

Kids pump water from the 52 Kids well.

A 70 foot protected hand dug well, with a manual pump was successfully constructed in December 2008, through a partnership between the 52 kids foundation, and Buwanzu community.

Buwanzu village is located in Nabwigulu subcounty, Kamuli district Uganda. It is a community with a population of atleast 700 people.

It is one of the villages in which the 52 kids live .

The open well where the Buwanzu community previously collected water.

Cattle graze in the vicinity of the open well.

Prior to December 2008, the community's only source of domestic water was an open well. The well was shared by both humans and domestic animals like cattle and goats.

"We now get our domestic water from the "bore hole", we have left the open well to cattle and goats" explains Mr Tenywa, a 35 year old community resident who donated the land on which the well was constructed and current community elected well supervisor. " Gone are the days when one had to spend up to 3 hours to collect a 20 litre jerrycan of safe drinking water,life was tough,our children suffered bad skins and diarrhoea disease from bathing and drinking dirty water from the open well, they did not understand the effect of drinking dirty water," further explains Mr Tenywa.

Left: Mr. Tenywa, the borehole supervisor. Right: A girl happily carries away a 20 liter "jerrycan" of water from the borehole.

Mama Salaama, one of the 52kids guardians and community resident explains that she currently worries less about water and dedicates a lot of her time on other activities like garden work.

"I open the 'borehole' in the morning, lock it at mid day and later open it in the evening.This allows enough time for every family to collect enough water to use. We lock up the well in the night because no body can watch over it in the night," explains Mr Tenywa when asked why a padlock had been placed on a chain next to the pump handle.

The community has put in place a pool fund into which each family will contribute a basic monthly fee. We want that money to accumulate so that in case of any repairs, and maintenance, we can pay for the costs as a community.

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PR, surveys and the 'Breakthough Coach'

I just finished up summarizing the results of our survey about people's reaction to the HOUSE campaign, spear-headed by Peter Brady. The response (from nine different clients) was wonderful and overwhelmingly positive. My meetings with Alexandra from KSV (PR help) were also great, and she made a really nice customized PR strategy for the 52 Kids on PowerPoint. On Friday I'm going to be in Whitehall NY visiting Mal 'the breakthrough coach', who has been a regular supporter of the Foundation for over two years. I hope everybody in UG is having a good time and gaining from the experience. Please keep us posted.

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52 Kids Foundation selects 3 CVU students for Leadership Program

Lindsey Kingston, Caleb Ladue and Zoe Adams, all seniors attending Champlain Valley Union High school will be traveling to Kamuli, Uganda for a 2 week Leadership Program. While there they will see firsthand how the medical system works in a developing country by assisting nurses and doctors at the Kamuli Mission Hospital. The group will then be asked to form women's groups in local villages to discuss gender advancement, family planning as well as adult education. The final part of the trip will be learning then leading groups in building fuel efficient stoves as part of the environmental recovery movement initiated by the 52 Kids Foundation. This is the third year CVU students have participated in the Leadership Program. A second trip is planned for the winter break in February for interested applicants.

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Well project

May 2009

In March '09 we finished the construction of a 70-foot covered well, that pumps clean water to a village of over three thousand people. Four of the students that we support alerted the Foundation to the water situation in their home village; people were faced with the choice between a 1.5 hour walk (each way) to get clean water, or to use a water hole shared with livestock.

The Thursday Night Hockey group in Burlington Vermont took on the challenge of raising the $5,000 needed to build the well. After raising the funds, the Foundation worked with village leaders to find a suitable site and organize a maintenance scheme. The well is now in operation, and the video is from the ribbon cutting ceremony attended by John Koerner, Peter Brady, and Bill Butler, three members of the Thursday Night Hockey group.

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Fundraising 2008

The sum all of the donations for 2008 increased 10x, a remarkable increase from 2005 when we started with a small amount. In addition to raising more money, we are receiving donations from a more diverse group, including annual gifts from individuals, foundations, and events (like the Lobster dinner at CVU). Jagger recently got in contact with friend from the UK who is considering fundraising for us there, which would be our first international fundraiser! Donate now or through our H.O.U.S.E. campaign

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Home improvement projects

The home improvement projects at the families' homes are nearing completion. Together with Foundation employees and volunteers, the families have constructed fuel efficient stoves, water collection facilities, backyard gardens, pit latrines, and hand washing facilities at nearly all of the homes.

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Dorm construction underway

John, 52 Kid's Foundation program director, left for Uganda and is staying in Kamuli for approximately one month to oversee the construction of the dorm, and participate in meetings to gather ideas and generate consensus about how to best use this new space. He recently sent a brief e-mail home and reported that the trip has been very productive.

This is a picture of Monica's house. Monica is HIV positive as is her daughter Stella. Stella was born with the disease and is a member of the 52 Kids Foundation. Stella's father died of Aids several years ago and left the family this half completed building. The Foundation, Monica and her family (along with 4 other sisters) partnered to secure an affordable lease that would allow us to use this as a dorm and for her family to have a steady source of income. 52 Kids Foundation signed a 20-year lease giving Monica an income of $950/year, half the market rate (thank you Monica).

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Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors had its first online meeting last month that connected people from Vermont, New York, Connecticut, and Uganda via Skype. It was great to have everyone chatting and sharing ideas all at the same time.

Board of Directors

Jagger Koerner: I recently graduated from Cornell University, and am excited to start medical school in the coming fall at the University of Rochester and business school at the Simon Graduate School of Business. I live with my wife in Ithaca NY, and split my time between working at a pharmacy and working for the Foundation.

Kate Ittleman is a clinical research coordinator in the multiple myeloma unit at Dana Farber Cancer Institute based in Boston. She has her Masters in Public Health from Yale University and an undergraduate degree in biology and English from the University of Vermont. She has worked at the Harvard School of Public Health researching children affected by adversity and at the Office of Sustainability at Yale. She grew up in Charlotte, Vermont.

Dr. Frank Woitera: I graduated from Mulago School of orthopedics - Kampala Uganda, in 2007. I have committed a lot of my time since then implementing the ground activities of the Foundation with a lot of emphasis on the health care needs of the 52 kids, their families and the communities in which they live.

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