I last wrote about this about 10 days ago. Already there has been progress, mostly at the level of building communication.
People who know me know that I take on many projects. Sometimes with considerable success, sometimes getting nowhere. One of my main accomplishments was setting in motion the restoration (currently happening thanks to much help!) of the last surviving synagogue in the town of Rezekne in Latvia where my family came from.
Now I have initiated the Abayudaya Solar Cooker project. The idea is to provide solar or high efficiency cook stoves to a community in the Mbale region of Uganda that includes Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities. These communities were once at odds with each other with the Jewish community in particular being persecuted...in fact Idi Amin nearly wiped them out.
Since then, the Jewish community (called the Abayudaya) has focused on projects that bring benefits to all members of the area whatever their tribal or religious affiliation. For example, school lunch programs for schools that cater to all religious groups. And they have started a coffee cooperative that involves and provides income for all members of the community. You can buy this amazing coffee, called Mirimbe Kawomera, or "Delicious Peace," from Thanksgiving Coffee. I highly recommend it!
This is all an example of cooperation among diverse people in a part of the world that has all too often fought over their differences.
While reading about the Abayudaya I noticed that they have a problem that afflicts many communities around the world: the use of cook stoves that use large amounts of wood or charcoal and fill the women's lungs with smoke, causing endemic respiratory problems. Efficient or solar cook stoves are ways of providing better technology to a community, reducing deforestation, and improving women's health. I have decided to try and bring this improved technology to the Abayudaya and their neighbors. I have established a collaboration among four key organizations: Kulanu, Jewish World Watch, Solar Cookers International, and the Abayudaya Women's Association. Together we have accomplished our first goal. Now we are trying to combine our talents to fundraise, network, build a project plan and bring hot food to schools and clinics in the Mbale region while improving women's health and reducing deforestation.
Today I want to introduce you to Norah Nantabo, president of the Abayudaya Women's Association who is now my main partner in this project.
More below...
Norah Nantabo has just been a name to me. When I originally proposed this project, having no idea how to accomplish it, the president of Kulanu.org suggested my first step should be to get a laptop, solar charger, and modem to the president of the Abayudaya Women's Association to make direct contact with her as my partner in the Mbale region for this project. So I defined as phase 1 of my Solar Cooker project to be simply to get this equipment to Norah so she could better serve the women of the Abayudaya and also so she and I could talk computer to computer.
I was able to raise the money (starting with seed funds donated by Fisher Scientific) and Kulanu was able to use it to buy the computer, modem and a limited amount of internet access so we can communicate. I still hope in the future to get a solar charger, since her village doesn't have electricity, but since she can charge the computer when she is in town, it isn't necessary. Continued internet access is also something we will have to deal with in the future, but for now we can get the next phase of our joint project started: providing solar cookers to one or more schools and/or clinics as a way to introduce the community to the technology so they can decide if it useful in meeting their needs. They know of the health problems they face because of their traditional charcoal stoves, and they understand about sustainability and how climate change is affecting their coffee growing and hence their economy. So they are totally into the idea in theory. But we need to see if it works for them in practice.
I am talking with Norah and she is finding out all the information I need on the ground to establish the community's cooking needs: the kinds of food they eat, the best schools and clinics to start with, and the like.
She has identified two schools and one clinic to start with: Hadassah Primary School, Semei Kankungulu High School, and the Tobin Health Centre.
Here is a video about the Hadassah Primary School and other schools helped by the Abayudaya and Kulanu.org:
These are the children we will be helping feed while als protecting the pulmonary health of the women who care for them and the local forests that surround them. Norah has determined that the primary school cooks for 250 people a day, the high school (our second target) cooks for 150, and the health clinic for 60 on average each day. So our goals for phase 2 of the project is to eventually provide solar cookers and supporting cooking apparatus to cook for over 400 people per day.
Norah is also teaching me about the foods they eat so I can, in consultation with the Solar Cookers International, identify the best equipment to match their needs. Here is her description of their local cuisine: (with my links to more information)
The food commonly cooked are, beans, posho [also known as ugali in Swahili], rice, matooke, cssava, green vegetables, Shabbat bread [challah] made from wheat flour, millet bread made from millet flour. Posho, millet bread are cooked by mingling so, they need a stove which is stronger than the one for bean, matooke and others.
Needless to say, money is what we need in order to accomplish our goals. I have begun fundraising, though I am not a very good fundraiser. But I am intending to make it happen somehow...eventually. There are two things I will be raising money for right now and I invite all of you to give if you can. Donations can be made through Kulanu.org as described below are fully tax deductible (hey...tax season is coming up, so lock in a deduction now!). The specific items I am fundraising for at the moment are the following:
1. Abayudaya Solar Stove Project: Hadassah Primary School
This will be the first school we want to provide with cookstoves. To donate to provide clean, efficient cook stoves for a school catering to 5-13 year olds, please donate through the link below and under Gift Information, please designate "Other" for the Fund you want to contribute to, and in the comment section please request that the money goes to the Abayudaya Solar Stove Project, Hadassah Primary School Fund.
https://app.etapestry.com/...
2. Abayudaya Women's Association Internet Fund:
This will pay for monthly internet access for the Abayudaya Woman's Association, allowing better coordination with them on the solar stove project. Please through the link below and under Gift Information, please designate "Other" for the Fund you want to contribute to, and in the comment section please request that the money goes to the Abayudaya Women's Association Internet Fund.
https://app.etapestry.com/...
When you donate, please email me so I can confirm with Harriet Bograd, the president of Kulanu.
I am excited that I have reached the second phase of this project and am now able to work directly with Norah as a partner. I hope you will join me in helping a diverse African community that is thriving on cooperation rather than fighting over their differences.
For more information on the Abayudaya themselves, please click here.