Moundou - 20 April 2013 - It took armed forces to keep people under control. Domane, located beyond Badei, had heard about ENVODEV's training sessions in the area. When Dadje Aquilas organized a demonstration and training session with the Domane group called Mekasna, many merchants, businessmen, and cultivators eagerly came. The training took place on the last day of the month of March.

The crowd that turned up forced Ghislain Rodoumbaye, our administrator, to find the village chief and ask for help. The chief sent his armed forces to keep people from mingling with Mekasna group. A total of nine members of the group received direct training and equipment while dozens of people watched. While stressful, the high level of interest and enthusiasm is always encouraging. Many are excited to discover that what was once waste can become a source of income.

By the end of the month, a first shipment of carbonized biomass bags should arrive from Domane to our production site in Moundou.

Photos: The photos might become redundant... fields, people, a simple kiln, agro-waste... perhaps our lovely vehicle. We are happy to share these key moments though. The training phase, out in the fields, is where all operations have to begin. Our staff in Chad is always eager to share what they are doing with all of you!

Urgent needs: Our vehicle has explored African roads, paths and bush for over 20 years, and it is showing signs of much desired retirement. With increasing technical problems and car parts breaking, the need for a solid new vehicle has become a pressing matter. Doing demonstrations, training and equiping carbonization partners is not possible without a vehicle. We will keep you posted on solutions and how you can get involved.



- David De Armey
International Director

Moundou - 20 January, 2013. - The Eco-Charcoal Project, well on its way, has taken our staff to Nya and to new areas outside Moundou. We could not have reached them without local insight and connections that our staff has. The local leadership taking place is a demonstration of one of ENVODEV's core values: That local managers feel ownership of the projects. 

After a preliminary demonstration in Tilo, the ENVODEV team went back to impart a full training session. Dadje Aquilas and Ghislain were helped by two members of APRO-ECO, Ramadji Zizel and Chrisine Dadje.

On January 14, a total of 17 people, all members of KOSGUELBE, learned how to transform biomass (sesame chaff and rice-straw) into char. Well organized, KOSGUELBE is now producing bags of carbonized biomass. On the 6th of February, ENVODEV will return to Tilo to evaluate how well the team is carbonizing the biomass and will pick up the first batch of char bags for briquette production back in Moundou.

Tilo is an exciting addition to the charcoal project. The villagers are motivated and grateful to be part of a project that will provide a new and much needed source of income. The district chief was present at the training, marking the importance of what this charcoal project represents to the local population. 

All photos have been sent directly from ENVODEV's office in Moundou. We know how important pictures are for everyone who is involved in this project. We keep the pictures at a relatively low resolution quality so they can be sent back to our main office in France. 

What does a photo represent?

For supporters and donors, photos are proof of progress. Pictures are some of the most powerful tools to convey a message. We hope you appreciate the ones we send you from Chad. 

For Chadians, to be in a picture is a rare and exciting opportunity. For many, being in a photo is only something they have heard of, and when the act of taking a picture is about to take place, some are afraid; fearing that perhaps the camera will cause pain in order to take the image. Once the picture is taken, and they have the opportunity to see themselves, it is a great excitement to them. They do not take a picture for granted.

On a technical level, a picture is also significant. In a city that only receives arbitrary electrical energy, it is not easy to charge the batteries of a camera. Solar energy is hardly exploited due to lack of infrastructure, and city power can only provide a total of three to four months of sporadic energy a year. Apart from the energy issue, sending a picture from Moundou to France is a technical challenge because internet access is scarce, expensive and weak. A 15-30 kbps connection is the typical speed. This means sending one picture can take several minutes, and cost modem connection several dollars. From 6 am to 8 pm, internet connection is often non-existent, meaning sending a picture has to be done at night. 

Therefore, we are thankful to share any picture that comes from Chad with you. We are also grateful to our Chadian team for the efforts they put into sending these photos and for the work they are doing.

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

Development is a loaded word, one which inevitably conjures multiple meanings. We might think of child development, business development, social development, rural development, software development, or even photographic development. The term has become so nebulous that we thought we should take the time to define what ‘development’ means to us; after all it’s part of our name.

As each new partnership opportunity has presented itself over the past year, we have been compelled to return to the essence of our name - Enterprise for Vocational Development. The first two words are fairly straightforward and we read in them the same way Merriam-Webster would.

·        


-Enterprise: A project or undertaking that is especially difficult, complicated, or risky.

-Vocational: Undergoing training in a skill or trade

The last word we have had to wrestle with, particularly because we are very aware of the pitfalls of replicating the failures of traditional international ‘development’ models. The oft unstated goal of donor countries providing AID to ‘developing’ nations is to turn their citizens into consumers who will eventually buy products from them. If a country ‘develops’ the idea goes, it will have the means to purchase more cars, phones, computers, and services from more ‘developed’ countries. As we ponder both the state and effects of ‘development’ in Chad, this idea leaves us disconcerted.

The state of ‘development’ in Chad is fairly straightforward. Over 80% of its people rely on subsistence farming and livestock raising for their livelihoods. ENVODEV does NOT consider this ‘backward’ something that should be ‘developed’ into a more advanced economic base.  We are NOT interested in promoting a move away from millennial agricultural practices adapted to very specific micro-climates. The result of previous ‘development’ initiatives in the country have often had the negative effect of pushing more and more people away from their land and into cities where cramped conditions and severe energy shortages have contributed to the problems ENVODEV is now attempting to address through its programs, namely poor sanitation and deforestation.

Both our charcoal and composting projects continue to be established keeping these key ideas in mind: 

• Positive change will only come about within the cultural framework of the Chadian people.

• We only take on projects relevant within their particular social environments.

• Resources are spent through apprenticeship programs

• Trainings must be relevant to the existing economic context and address local needs.

• Trainees own their business projects and make daily operational decisions about them.

We face many challenges in our development model. Because creating briquettes out of rice straw and encouraging people to compost their human waste  does not create the types of value that many donor agencies are looking for, nor modify existing economic structures, our work often falls outside of traditional ‘development’ funding categories. While we continue to operate on a very lean budget, those of you who have invested in this work have contributed to bringing about much needed reform in the way ‘development’ is done in Chad. While much more could be written about the last word in our name, we trust that if you continue browsing through our site it will speak of our model for itself.

(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.