• This year I’m donating part of my income to charity.
• Every month I chose another cause.
• Then I blog about it.

40 cigarettes a day

Imagine a small village in India. In a hut are women and children sitting around a fireplace cooking their meals. The smoke generated by the open fire lingers in the room. There is no chimney and ventilation is poor. This happens every day, every week, year over year. Food is heated this way across India and Africa. An estimated 500 million households use these primitive indoors stoves fuelled by wood, coal, crop waste and dung, some in the remotest places on earth.

The toxic air can be as bad as smoking the equivalent of 40 cigarettes a day. It destroys lungs causes heart diseases and can result in low weight at birth. According to United Nations, smoke from these fireplaces kills almost 2 million people and sickens millions more per year. Women staying at home looking after the food are mostly affected but children staying close to their mothers are equally vulnerable.

Scars in the landscape

Besides destroying human tissue, it also destroys the environment: chopping plants for firewood leads to environmental degradation in the long term. Large areas on those continents are now stripped bare of trees, much of which has occurred in the last 50 years. The resulting scars of deforestation across the land means valuable and important fertile soil is washed away with every rainfall.

Tons of soot from every village spewed into the atmosphere causes further problems. There are no exact numbers of how much CO2 emissions these stoves generate, estimates range from 2 to 5%. Over half of all wood harvested worldwide is used as fuel. Up to a third of the wood fuel harvested is unsustainable – that is when more wood is used than grown – causing degradation or deforestation. The solution to this does not require expensive technology. It is all about using the fuel more efficiently.

26 bricks is all you need

The charity I support this month is Ripple Africa. They are tackling the problem of unsafe and inefficient fireplaces in Malawi. The charity created a stove made of 26 mud bricks and a mud mortar mix; this is an adapted version of a 16-brick design by Dr. Larry Winiarski. All of which can be locally sourced and produced. It is called the “Changu Changu Moto”; it means “Fast Fast Fire” in Chichewa.

These cook stoves are much more efficient and cleaner than the open fire they used before, saving time and money as well as saving lives. Volunteers from the local communities are trained to build a Changu Changu Moto cook stove and can build them in the local communities. Householders are trained on maintenance and how to fire the oven. Ripple the monitored the houses and records progress.

Cleaner fuel-efficient cook stoves mean…

• Improving the health of women and children by burning fuel more efficiently and producing less hazardous some. The Changu Changu Moto fire is contained, greatly reducing the risk of burns while cooking.
• Reducing deforestation in Malawi. Over 90% of families in that region depend on wood for cooking. Every household that has a Changu Changu Moto needs 67% less wood. That resulted in savings of over 80.000 bundles of firewood – every week.
• Sustainability – The stoves are built from a simple mud mortar mix, and can be easily repaired by householders. RIPPLE Africa delivers the education that will ensure the stove will be used for life.
• Timesavings – women can save up to 10 hours per week on collecting firewood. The cooker also means meals take less time to prepare. The time saved can be spent on other activities.
• Saving money – In urban or heavily deforested areas wood is especially expensive. Poor families benefit from almost 70% savings on wood fuel.

Ripple Africa goes further and is educating families about sustainable living and discusses with them why people should use them. Communities are learning about the problems of deforestation, and why it’s import to live sustainable and environmentally friendly. This way Ripple ensures the long-term success of the project.

The charity helped over 30,000 households to replace their inefficient three stone fires with a Changu Changu Moto cook stove. They are now living healthier, spending less money, save time and save the environment.

Who is behind this?

Ripple Africa was born in 2003 and is a charity registered both in the UK and USA. Their staff of 150 Malawian is supported by 2.000 local Malawians, all working on the projects described. They started small and are growing one project at a time. They show long term and describe themselves as ‘realists, not idealists’.

Why I chose Ripple Africa

I like their approach of sourcing material locally and working with the communities on long term solutions making sure it’s sustainable. Their approach of growing the charity organically and addressing mistakes as they came along worked. A great cause for my #yearofcharity. I wish them all the best for the future.

From the archive

This is an archived post. It was published on a different blog that no longer exists. I tried to restore it but some details were lost.

• This year I’m donating part of my income to charity.
• Every month I chose another cause.
• Then I blog about it.

For this month I chose Tree Aid. They focus on poor families in the African drylands, especially Women. The aim is to reduce poverty & protect the environment by using the potential of trees. The organisation provides education, training and technical advice around planting and maintain the saplings so they survive and grow. Goal is to support poor communities to build incomes, secure access to natural resources and provide nutritional security.

Why trees?

Everyone knows trees and plants that produce some form of food (fruits & nuts) or other products such as shea butter or just the raw timber. Fruits rich in vitamin B and C can be dried and pressed together into balls for later use. Seeds are used to make a dye and the wood is used to make tools and utensils.
Even during droughts, when other crops fail, trees can survive. This can provide a village a steady flow of something to harvest.

Amongst the species Tree Aid plants you find Moringa trees, sometimes referred to as ‘miracle trees’ as they are packed with vitamins, amino acids, anti-oxidants and protein. Villagers can grow and maintain them without the need for further intervention if they have the right equipment and training. If all works as planned their plants provide:

• Food to harvest
• Money from selling products
• Health coming from natural medicines

And it’s good for the environment too:

• Soil making the land more fertile,
• Shade for humans and wildlife as well as crops.
• Acting as windbreaks that stop soil blowing away.

Bikes in the savannah

This charity works with teams based in the drylands of Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Niger and the isolated areas of Ethiopia. They help to generate a sustainable income and therefore help communities in remote areas to thrive.
The charity aims to be sustainable and cost-effective. This means they provide trees and seedlings for growing food and improving the environment. They train locals how to grow and to care for them. Helping to set up tree nurseries and earn an income is a central part to achieve sustainability.
Donations going to Tree Aid might be used provide tools such as buckets, pestles and mortars as well as wheelbarrows – even bicycles to provide an environmentally friendly and low-cost way to travel between nurseries and orchards. But an underestimated part is also to defend people’s rights to access: If you can’t reach the plants, or if someone else harvests its produce, it would render the efforts useless.

What happened so far?

Tree Aid has used their expertise in trees to fight poverty since 1987. They used their know-how to show the benefits that trees can bring. Along they learned that aligning motivation of people with actions results in commitment from locals and can cause a real, tangible change.

Since then…

• Over 10 million trees have been planted across Africa.
• Millions more have regenerated naturally thanks to improvements in natural resource management.
• More than 1,000,000 can grow more food thanks to better soil and water management.
• Over 500,000 villagers have been educated to use trees for food, health and income and are able to feed their families

Let’s take a closer look at a Project

Here is an example of the work in Ghana for Community Self-Reliance Project: Northern Ghana is a dry savannah zone that occupies around 40% of the country. The south is very different and the climate varies. There is a period of very strong, dry winds known as the ‘harmattan’.
Farming and crop rotation was possible in the past because of a lower population density but that changed. Farming methods changed under the pressure of a larger population and turned the landscape to semi-arid. It’s an enormous challenge to provide food.
Farmers are driven to clear more land by cutting and burning trees as there are not many options for employment. But this leaves the region bare and prone to erosion and worsens the food situation and causes even more problems.
Tree Aid set up Community Self Reliance Projects across 17 villages in that region through their partner the CSRC (Community Self Reliance Centre).

Together they support communities to develop the skills necessary for sustainable tree and land management. Through the sale of tree products such as honey and organic mango they can diversify their sources of income.
The soil fertility and yields are increased thanks to organic farming techniques and agroforestry. Plants around schools and near public buildings are preventing further erosion and offer protection from the harsh conditions.

Who is behind all this?

All this was triggered by a famine in Ethiopia in 1987 – a group of foresters responded: After the emergency relief efforts ended they provided a long-term solution. Key to their strategy was and still is planting trees to reduce vulnerability to communities to drought and famine.

Why did I choose this project?

The reason why I choose Tree Aid is that it addresses several issues at the same time: protecting the environment, helping others in need and offer a sustainable long-term solution. They have a good track record of what they achieved and are transparent about their donations and progress. This charity is a good start for my #yearofcharity.

From the archive

This is an archived post. It was published on a different blog that no longer exists. I tried to restore it but some details were lost.

• This year I’m donating part of my income to charity.
• Every month I chose another cause.
• Then I blog about it.

Gifts that grow

For Christmas 2015 I donated money to have trees planted in Africa, one for each of my family members and one for my friends and their children. It was received very well amongst my family & friends. It felt great – spending money for a good reason, knowing it will bring a positive outcome.

Monthly budget

It was not the first time I donated something. In fact I’m donating money on a regular basis to protect animals. This I’m very passionate about. The conclusion is: I want to do it again! But what charity should you choose?
In addition to donations, I took part in a few charitable events over the last years: running, climbing, swimming – all for good causes. By the way, what is a good charity anyway? You have to answer this question for yourself. For me it is anything starting from humanitarian causes to protecting animals. How we can protect the environment is one of my interests and that is why I want to be focusing on projects that also helps the environment.
Donating a part of my income would be a good starting point. Something I can afford will be my budget for every month. I also wanted to find out what can be achieved with my contribution, what impact it might have depending on where the money is invested in.

Are you a good botanist or scientist?

Most things I care about and want to support are challenging to do in the sense that planting trees in Africa is barely feasible for a working professional like me. Even if I take time off, fly there and plant a tree myself, chances are that the inexperienced person I am won’t be any good at it.

And taking into account the emissions I would produce by travelling there in the first place would make it a useless endeavour. How about building a well in Africa or researching cancer – I don’t want to think about the trouble this could cause when someone let me dig for water or let me into a lab. Let’s leave that to the professionals, shall we?

Finding the right one

Soon I found out it’s not easy to find a charity worth supporting. Don’t get me wrong – there are plenty of great organisations out there doing an outstanding job! Just think of the kind of cause you are interested in. You will find thousands of results by searching online for a fundraising project of your interest.
The real challenge is finding the “right” one, something that resonates with you. How would we know what project makes most sense, what organisation can actually deliver on their promises? Additional research is needed. This is exactly what I will be doing this year:

1. Find a project/cause to support,
2. Research and background check,
3. Support and blog about it.

From the archive

This is an archived post. It was published on a different blog that no longer exists. I tried to restore it but some details were lost.