I arrived in Chad around 11pm Sunday before. Slept in N’Djamena and then awoke in the wee hours of the morning (4am) to catch the first bus leaving the capital. It took nine hours traveling in 106F/41C heat, sweat gluing us to our seats, for us to arrive in Moundou. Later, after we recovered a bit from our travels we met with Aquilas and Ghislain, two Chadians who work for ENVODEV. We made plans and laid out our goals for the next two weeks: test the Eco-Charcoal’s efficiency, streamline production of the Eco-Charcoal, and make a high efficiency cook-stove to better utilize the Eco-Charcoal. Sounds like an easily achievable list, right? Unsurprisingly, our plans didn’t quite work out the way we had anticipated. But, then again, this is Africa. Things not going according to plan almost becomes the plan if you catch my meaning. 

            First of all, let me tell you about the charcoal project. While we thought we would be streamlining the production process and testing the Eco-Charcoal, Chance granted us a new opportunity by damaging 14 bags of bio-char with flooding. How lucky is that? Having discovered the sopping bags we immediately dried the bio-char in the sun. We are now getting to test the viability of the bio-char after it has been exposed to water. While, on our own, we wouldn’t have thought to douse the bio-char in water, Chance thought it might be an innovative idea.  Imagine, either we find out that the bio-char is unusable (which would be an unfortunate waste), or we find the bio-char is resilient after being soaked. While we didn’t plan on conducting this experiment, hopefully the latter result will prove true thereby transforming a setback into an opportunity. Yet, life wasn’t done playing with us yet. We were also given a turn to test our reflexes and ingenuity when violent storms hit Belaba during our fourth day of production, which was the first day we were there to actually visit. When we saw the clouds come, our lightning fast responses were matched only by the lightning itself as we rescued all the drying bio-char from the rains and stored our workstations. The storm was violent enough that it ripped the doors right off their hinges at our production site. Such storms have continued to test our ingenuity and perseverance as they have repeatedly crashed over our production site. 

            We have also had the opening to ferret out the best workers in Belaba. After utilizing a team who were not able to meet the production quota, we have streamlined our crew. Now we have an Eco-Charcoal production crew who, if they aren’t the fastest this side of the Atlantic, Pacific, Southern, Arctic, and Indian Oceans, are at least the best in Chad. Yet, even the most dedicated crews can’t function in a production line if they aren’t communicating with one another. One such issue with the line of communication presented itself when we came upon our bio-char crew lounging around waiting on manioc paste. The paste takes about forty –five minutes to make, and no one had told the paste maker that they needed paste until they needed paste. This left them with about forty-five minutes of wasted production time waiting while the paste was made. While these disturbances can be frustrating, the experience we are getting from all the errors we’ve observed, like the manioc paste not being ready on time, ultimately helps us as we continue to refine our methods.

            Overall, though it has been quite fun to smooth out the production process as well as play dodge with the weather systems, we have decided to begin the process of taking the next step in equipping and empowering the local community. We are currently finding a local business to partner with who can provide a production site as well as a staff to oversee the process. This business will take over the entire production process, as well as full charcoal program responsibilities, and eventually become financially independent. While production this year will be ending soon as the rainy season approaches (the rainy season lasts from May-October) operations will begin again at the end of October, beginning of November. 

            Another exciting development that occurred in Chad this week was the completion of our first high efficiency FIRES (further improved rammed earth stove). These cook-stoves cut down on household pollution (which therefore reduces local risks of pneumonia, chronic pulmonary disease, lung cancer) while also dramatically increasing the efficiency of normal Chadian cook-stoves, which lose 80% of their total energy load. While we are excited to have finished this F.I.R.E.S. we have also found a local woman who builds stoves of her own, which allow for a 50% charcoal efficiency increase. This discovery provides us with another opportunity to partner with local community members by possibly creating a partnership with this young lady who has struggled to sell the cook-stoves on her own. Potentially, our facilities could offer two forms of cook-stoves, the rammed earth version, as well as this young woman’s.

            Lastly, let me give you an update about our valiant Henry Hilux, our faithful truck, who has been wheezing as of late. With the driving we have had to do for the production season, as well as preparing a mould for our efficient cook-stove; Henry has been creaking under the strain. As a temporary solution we began using moto-taxis to get around. While good in theory, it proved dangerous in practice. Motorcycle accidents are all too frequent in Moundou, and the hazards became all too real after our Envodev team member, Ghislain, was involved in an accident. Thankfully he came out unhurt, but we (Envodev and Henry Hilux) realized that we couldn’t continue to risk people’s lives in order for Henry to get a break. Unfortunately, after that resolution, Henry’s alternator took a turn for the dead when Chuck, Aquilas, and Ghislain were in Belaba testing charcoal. This required a large group of people to push Henry for awhile before they could call him back from the grave. Henry has told us that, while he’s happy to help, his 20 some years of faithful service are weighing heavily upon him, and now he just wants to rust in peace. You can help us put Henry out to pasture today by donating at our GlobalGiving page.

            Well, that about sums up my past two weeks. Our time in Chad has been encouraging as I continue to see this Eco-Charcoal project take on its full body as well as see the first production of our F.I.R.E.S.

Till next time!

-David De Armey, International Director, ENVODEV

Partner with us today and support the successful work we are doing in Chad! You can do this in a variety of ways:

1) Sponsor our growing projects by contributing at our Global Giving page.

2) Share our project by emailing or ‘liking’ our Global Giving page, following our Twitter feed (@ENVODEV), subscribing to our blog, or ‘liking’ our Facebook page. (Also, tell all your favorite friends about us!)

3) If you are savvy enough to have a personal website, why not help a friend out and embed our project widget onto your homepage? It’s extremely easy (especially for an informed individual like yourself) and is a fantastic way to raise awareness among family, friends, and colleagues!

Belaba / Chad. ENVODEV is proud to see Eco-Charcoal see the light! After many months of preparation, trips to train villages, follow-up work, communication, we finally see the first briquettes being made! The time is just right. The rainy season is approaching, and with rain comes a higher demand for cooking fuel. Thank you to all who have been supporting this project! The charcoal program has a bright future ahead, and our team in Chad is very thankful for the care and attention all of you have demonstrated these past months to make this possible. 

This is the first official production of Eco-Charcoal since we launched the charcoal program in December 2012. The bio char being used comes from Domane and Badéi. Moundou, fuel is on the way!

Meinhild Selbach - During my visit to Chad in February 2013 I had the privilege of joining ENVODEV’s administrator Ghislain to the village of Tilo – about 20 km (13 miles) east of Moundou.

Leaving Moundou meant also leaving the asphalt road. The road out to Tilo was just sand. 

I think the opposite is actually true. Chadians are able to deal with difficulties and are most of all able to learn new things.

They have to change paradigms. They need to learn to think outside of their “box”. Traditionally, rice straw is burned since it withers very slowly. That’s what everybody knows. When kids living in Tilo started playing with the straw and setting it on fire, they did not think of it as a bad thing. The youth needs to learn about carbonization and the need for it. Living in the village, they do not necessarily understand how valuable briquettes made from rice straw are to people in the nearby city of Moundou. Only when they know the value of the straw, they will understand that they have to protect it.

ENVODEV’s activities have been expanding around Moundou this year.

The day after our visit to Tilo, I joined Ghislain and ENVODEV’s Tchadian Director Dadje Aquilas to the village of Badeï. Badeï is about 16 miles west of Moudou.

Again, soon after leaving Moundou, we left the aspalt road and continued on a sand road.

The goal of ENVODEV’s visit to Badeï was to show the process of carbonization to a “groupement” of women. This time sesame straw was used.

Moundou - ENVODEV Chad is pleased to announce that the tests they have been making on sesame chaff have been positive. Sesame is grown across southern Chad, and like rice-straw, is burned after harvest.

On 09 November our team tried carbonizing sesame chaff just east of N'Djamena. Since those preliminary tests, Aquilas, Ghislain, and members of APRO-ECO have been collecting sesame chaff in Moundou to get enough char to make briquettes.

According to Aquilas, the charcoal briquette quality equals that of the rice-straw charcoal. This news comes at a great time as ENVODEV is in the process of turning this project into a larger sustainable vocational program (Charcoal as Vocation). 

Along with this encouraging discovery for our project, our ENVODEV staff in Chad has been working closely with villagers of Tilo and Belaba to test a new form of binder. The current binder used to make the briquettes is manioc, a root also known as Kassava. But manioc remains our number one cost for briquette making, and the cost is fairly high. That expense will decrease with time as ENVODEV forms partnerships with local manioc cultivators, but in the meantime, a cheaper binder would be more than welcome to find. Women of Belaba made a new binder from a plant that grows in the wild. This plant, used to make a basic sauce called Tan Koul, is much more abundant and available than manioc, and in terms of cost, represents only one fifth of what manioc costs. 

Both the discovery of sesame chaff as a new form of bio char and the wild plant as an alternative binder will inevitably help the eco-charcoal project become more accessible to everyone, and more easily sustainable. 

Since the beginning of December, the ENVODEV Chad Team has been working relentlessly at making the charcoal project happen. After a successful demonstration and preliminary training at Nya, we have been in the process of building new carbonizing kilns to transform as much rice-straw as possible. Fidel, the leader of the Nya Team, warned us that cultivators have already begun burning away rice-straw in their fields, and that we need to move quickly and do a full-training session as soon as possible. A full training session will last three to five days, and require funds we are still in the process of gathering. Global Giving has yet to begin the disbursement of funds raised during the December Challenge, during which over $5,000 USD was collected.

In the meantime, our ENVODEV Team has explored another area where rice is extensively cultivated. Dadje Aquilas and Rodoumbaye Ghislain reached a location called Tilo, just 20 km east of Moundou. This area is very productive, and a local team is already set up to receive training in Tilo. Dadje Aquilas and Djems, a Chadian volunteer, performed a first carbonization demonstration at Tilo, and have greatly motivated the new Team called "KOSGUELBE," which means Supporting a Village. Tilo will reinforce charcoal production capacity by sending carbonized rice-straw back to Moundou, where charcoal briquette production will actually take place.

By contributing to our project, you are participating in the economic development and environmental protection of Chad. Thank you for your support, and for taking interest in one of the most neglected regions of the world.

 David De Armey

International Director

(NEWS) LYON – September 27, 2012 (ENVODEV) – The escalation of crises in Chad will inevitably mark the precarious lives of Chadians in the months to come. Last year’s drought, that resulted in a famine in Sahelian Chad, has given way to just the reverse phenomenon this year, hitting much closer to Chad’s population and agricultural centers. Unprecedented rains have ravaged central and southern Chad, not only compromising crop yields, but displacing populations across the nation. According to a report released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, close to half-a-million people have been affected, and hundreds of thousands of hectares of cropland compromised (IRIN, 2012). Just last week, as stated in a press release by Djamil Ahmat on September 21, 2012, the First Lady of Chad, Hinda Deby, launched a vast campaign to help those who have suffered total loss in N’Djamena. Several hundred humanitarian tents have been given to the families whose homes were destroyed by the floods (Alwihda, 2012). (See map below to view affected regions and statistics).

Yesterday, in a discussion with an emissary of the Ministry of the Environment in Moundou, ENVODEV National Coordinator Loubaramadji Dadje Aquilas was informed that rice crops in the central region of Bongor have been devastated. The Logone River, which flows south to north, rose and swelled so much that the flat plains have been completely submerged. The Chari River, of which the Logone is a tributary, consequently swelled as well. The Logone water level is so high that the vast rice plantations are in some areas completely submerged, and rice grains have rotted. Dozens of villages have been abandoned, and the only road from N’Djamena to Moundou has become the place to relocate due to its elevated surface. Families are living on the paved road in makeshift shelters while violent rains, though progressively diminishing in frequency this week, still sweep across the plain.

The charcoal project to be launched and expanded this fall will not suffer since ENVODEV is working in southern Chad, where the rice crops have been affected to a lesser degree. The yields are expected to be mediocre, exposing Chad to a much more severe food crisis at the beginning of next year compared to the food crisis this year due to the drought in 2011. ENVODEV Administrator Rodoumbaye Ghislain announced that ENVODEV’s charcoal project has received unprecedented support from Laokein Kourayo Medare, the Mayor of Moundou. More meetings with the Mayor are to be held in view of establishing a project in an effort to mitigate the environmental stress due to deforestation, a result of wood-charcoal consumption.

Deforestation is the leading cause of desertification in Chad. Because of the lack of protection from trees, the topsoil is exposed to the elements. The soil is baked in 45°+C weather for several months, then blown away by winds; this makes the ground incapable of absorbing the torrential rains during the wet season, particularly when the rains last five months instead of three as they did this year. This phenomenon has affected countries well beyond Chad.

The other result of excessive water is the increase in disease epidemics. Water is synonymous with typhoid fever and malaria and many other crippling diseases that chronically affect the country. Only time will show the extent to which these diseases will affect the Chadian population this year. Outbreaks of cholera are yet to be reported.