The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) has commissioned a new video that will showcase the projects currently funded under their Renewable Energy Challenge Fund. Fireworks and Edcom Filmz will be responsible for the work. As a grantee for such programme, yesterday we all visited Kabowa Curch of Uganda Primary School for some filming and interviews to the Head Mistress and the kitchen staff, and a visit to the kitchen that was in full swing preparing lunch for the children.
Sorry for the silence! This month nothing has changed from our daily field work - we are busy as usual. As we approach the end of April, we also approach the end of the first school term (there are three terms in the Ugandan curriculum). Which means we are also checking on every single institutional improved cook stove’s condition as we take advantage of the holidays in May to provide the free annual maintenance as children stay home.
We are also undergoing some auditing exercises: our internal Simoshi mini audit of our accounts with Base Associates, the World Bank’s funded project audited by KPMG in Uganda (see picture below) and soon entering into our first ever verification exercise (sort of an auditing) with the Designated Operational Entity KBS for our carbon finance Project Activity. Exciting times for us - let alone the swimming in paper, but indeed looking forward to seeing the outcomes.
This week we have deployed institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) for the KCCA Military Police primary school. This school of 630 children is located inside the military barracks. As such, the kitchen is shared where food is cooked for the children, the hospital, the prison and the military.
This is a huge space that is using a mix of traditional 3-stone fires and old stoves that were once supposed to be improved, but with time and no maintenance in place, they ended up all broken and consuming as much firewood as a traditional one.
We conducted training to all military officers responsible for the cooking activities. Despite having twoIICS now for the cooking needs of the primary school, we still hope that all of the cooking in the military barracks will be also made with new IICS as the Commander will be monitoring Simoshi’s performance in the coming months.
St. Pias is a new primary school that has recently joined our Project Activity. This is a typical example of a school in Kampala, cooking with 3-stone fires. But with the efforts made from the head teacher Harriet (pictured below) and the financing provided by Simoshi, the school is now cooking with 3 institutional improved cook stoves (IICS), saving ugx 600,000 per school term. The pictures below were taken last month in February, and yesterday repectively, as we went to monitor how the cook staff was feeling with the new IICS. No more words needed, the images below speak for themselves……
BEFORE
AFTER
Children went back to school early this month. That means our monitoring activities for the big institutional improved cook stoves are now taking place, as we collect all indicators needed for our carbon finance Project Activity. Some indicators include the use of traditional stoves in the kitchens, the quality of the air, tainning of the kitchen staff, the size of the firewood used in the IICS, the higiene in the kitchen, the amount of firewood spent during the term, etc.
On the other hand, marketing and sales of the small household improved cook stoves are also back on track, and our Project Officers are busy with teachers during their coffee breaks and lunch hour promoting the dual fuel Ugastove brand.
Over the past couple of years we have been writing about the progress being made by the Green School NAMA in Uganda, pre-selected under the NAMA Facility’s 4th call. Designed to provide access to finance to upscale the institutional improved cook stoves uptake in schools in Uganda, the application made by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development and UNDP is no longer competing. This is indeed sad news as the technology is desperately needed. Although no official communication has been made yet, we have received a call from the NAMA Facility’s headquarters in Germany to respond to our inquiry of such progress, and were communicated that the proposal is no longer being processed.
This is the season when at Simoshi our colleague Masereka is busy like a bee. As part of our Project Activity obligations with the schools, we provide free annual maintenance to all institutional improved cook stoves (IICS).
Most schools will be starting the new school calendar year on the 4th of February. Therefore we are busy finalising with the last remaining schools.
Some of our participating schools have got their IICS entering their fourth year of operation. Because of the free annual maintenance we provide, the IICS are still performing as day one when the IICS were first deployed, with schools still making the same firewood savings like right from the start.
A Happy New Year to all our readers. We hope everyone had a great start of the 2019. At Simoshi, we are looking forward to getting new schools added under our Project Activity. As previously mentioned in our former posts, this year we will be focusing on securing funding to include another 200 schools, while also dedicating efforts in sensitising school communities on the use of the same energy efficient technology within their households.
Both projects are our priority for this new year, and we look forward to sharing exciting news from the field.
As we approach the end of 2018, and while the Climate Change Conference (COP24) taking place in Poland comes to an end today, we would like to publish Simoshi’s latest achievements with its registered Clean Development Mechanism and Gold Standard Project Activity (PA) “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda”.
Since March 2016 when the first school joined Simoshi’s PA by moving away from the traditional cooking practices to energy efficient cook stoves, a total of 54 schools (day and boarding, primary and secondary) are currently jointly making amazing firewood reductions on their daily cooking activities.
Such firewood reductions are equivalent to 8,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide that have not been released into the atmosphere (as shown on the carbon credit timeline figure below).
The 8,400 tonnes of CO2 reduced are an example of all participating schools and Simoshi’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that have been achieved in a sustainable way. The positive impact translates into huge economic benefits as schools reduce to half their firewood expenditures, a quantified on-going reduction of CO2 emissions and deforestation, and cleaner air that reduces the exposure to air pollution and the associated burden of disease.
Our target of including an additional 200 schools to the existing population is an achievable goal, and we hope we will be able to secure the necessary funding to finance the purchase of the institutional improved cook stoves to schools as we enter into the new year.
Ugastove and Simoshi have jointly developped a Quality Assurance and Quality Control Manual for the production of the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS). This manual has been included in Simoshi’s CDM and Gold Standard Project Activity, which includes practices to be undertaken for all IICS deployed in participating schools.
The manual is a comprehensive guide that includes a detailed table with dimensions on the firebox chamber, thickness of different metal sheets used and reinforcement areas, ratios for the mixture of clay, mica, sand, cement and water for insulation materials, percentages of allumina content found in maica and clay, etc.
Therefore periodic training is undertaking with Ugastove and Simoshi’s team, to ensure that all guidelines are followed during the manufacturing of the IICS. Moreover, a Simoshi staff also performs a final check as IICS get ready for delivery.
Training at Ugastove’s office
IICS Quality Assurance and Control Assessment
Whether inside the classroom, or under a tree, Simoshi’s Project Officers are busy every day visiting schools and sensitising teachers and school staff about the benefits of using an energy efficient cook stove. We wanted to share some pictures of our daily activities, and the pleasure of seeing the uptake of the improved cook stoves (ICS)……both women and men taking their ICS home, to make a positive impact on their income and the environment.
An improved cook stove gets a new home
As part of the training we provide to those schools participating under our programme, special attention is given to the management of firewood. We developed the “Firewood best practice manual”, which focuses on how to best manage the amount of energy stored in firewood.
The main goal is to get schools to burn dry firewood for their daily cooking activities. Unfortunately, the firewood available in Uganda for schools to purchase is wet, which results in a decrease in its energetic value, while also burning at an inefficient combustion, generating a lot of smoke and an unhealthy environment for cooks and children.
Yesterday we found the children at Kabowa Church of Uganda Primary School helping with sorting the firewood recently purchased. The boys had the responsibility of bringing it inside the kitchen firewood shelter. Children know that to get the most heat value, the school needs to stack the firewood in piles, off the ground, in a covered storage, opened on the sides, to prevent from getting wet from the rain. Children have learnt that by following some simple procedures, and planning ahead, the firewood water content can reduce from 50% when purchased to 30% after 6 months, and 15% after one year, while the energetic value doubles. Here below are some pictures of the boys in action!
This week we had the pleasure to host two members from the UNCDF CleanStart program team, Edirisa Sembatya and Teresa Le. They are currently performing an assessment on Simoshi’s operations and needs, to determine areas in our model that might need further technical assistance. We share some pictures of their visit, while also posing with their Green Gloria t-shirts from the school promotional campaign.
We have received 1,000 Ugastove household improved cook stoves (ICS) and are now ready to be sold by end of next month. From the factory to Simoshi's office in Kajjansi, ICS are well stocked and will be marketed and sold within Simoshi's schools network.
During the month of August, four new schools/institutions have joined our programme. Two public, the other two private. One of the public schools, Makerere University Primary School, has been supported by Citibank, while the other remaining three have made the fantastic effort to channel their finances towards improving their cooking practices. We welcome Makerere University Primary School, Unique Uniforms, Kawemba Preparatory and St. Maria Goretti Ssumbwe Primary School and look forward to our long relationship, seeing them transition to cleaner, healthier and safer kitchen environments.
Our superstar Angella was at Centenary Bank head office today, training over 30 new loan officers that will be promoting institutional improved cook stoves across the country. Angella, together with other bank partners dealing in solar products, spent the day talking to a group of enthusiastic Ugandans about the benefits accrued from the use of improved cook stoves. This will be a great opportunity for Simoshi to further expand the energy NIL program with the bank.
We want to thank Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and the Director of Education Ms. Juliet Namuddu, for allowing us to make a presentation about clean cooking during their end of term meeting with Head Teachers and school directors of secondary schools, yesterday afternoon at Old School Kampala S.S.S.
Today the same event will take place with primary schools at Kitante Primary School. This is a fantastic opportunity to introduce the use of institutional improved cook stoves and while making a swift transition to cleaner, healthier and safer environment. Together with Rehema Nakyazzee from Ugastove and Abdul Kyanika from Centenary Bank, we discussed throughout the afternoon with many attendants interested in learning more about this effective cooking approach.
During the past 10 months, UNDP has been supporting the development of the "Green School NAMA" to address the high consumption of firewood in schools in Uganda and its resultant effects on the national forest reserves and the green house gas (GHG) emissions. The process of securing funding from the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA) Facility has so far passed the first assessment stage and has got the approval of the full size proposal valued at USD 15 million for the next five years. Such fund is intended to reduce GHG emissions through the introduction of institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) in 15,750 schools in Uganda.
Back in January 2017 we wrote about the visit Simoshi received of the NAMA auditors as the "Green School NAMA" was being validated.
Last week CIRCODU held a "Stove Manufacturer and Tester Training" as a result of the above, to prepare the sector on the Green School NAMA call for Expression of Interest, as different organisations prepare for their submissions.
We are very exited to introduce Green Gloria to Simoshi's current marketing activities. Green Gloria is a six year old vigilante with super powers on a mission to protect the environment. Her alter ego is Gloria, a little ordinary school-going nerd who is close to invisible to her classmates. No one suspects her double life. Along the way, she is confronted by many nemeses; entities, some hell bent on achieving personal ambitions even at the expense of the environment; others, downright psychopaths who derive their thrill from instigating chaos.
Artist Ben and his creation Green Gloria
Green Gloria is the creation of Ugandan cartoonist and illustrator, Benjamin Buhamizo. The comic was awarded by the Embassy of Sweden in Kampala during their "Facing the Climate" competition in 2017, and has run in the New Vision's Toto magazine every Wednesday since then. We have launched our new marketing activity for those schools involved in the promotion and sale of the dual fuel household improved cook stove (ICS). With the purchase of the ICS, parents can now receive a free t-shirt with the Green Gloria superhero on it.
A Student Champion proudly wearing his t-shirt at Golden Learning Centre in Mityana
Simoshi together with Ugastove is participating this year on the Source of the Nile Jinja Agricultural Show organised by the Uganda National Farmers Federation, which started last Friday and will be running until Sunday 22 of July.
The theme of this years' show is "Fostering Agricultural Value Chains Innovations for Farmer Led Food Security, Household Income and Job Creation". We would like to share some images from the even and our stall, all thanks to UNCDF's contribution which had made such stall exhibition possible.
