Preliminary Vision:

Helping the spread of highly practical, concrete Biodigesters in East Africa.

Original Reasoning: To slow deforestation in the area. Forest Ecologists have reported that many forests in East Africa will likely be gone in under 20 years. Given estimated population growth I suppose.

The Biodigester: A concrete dome built just below the surface of the ground. Cow manure (or pig or human, or all) is mixed with water and left in fed to the digester where methane is produced and can be sent through a hose to the kitchen for cooking.

Other Benefits: -Improved Health as a result of smokeless methane cooking in the home as opposed to burning wood or charcoal. Respitory Illnesses are very common in Tanzania

-Concrete Biodigesters will inevitably pay for themselves by ending wood and/or charcoal costs; Freeing up cash for other important things.

-Manure, having undergone anaerobic digestion is much better fertilizer than the fresh stuff.

Happy Coincidence: Tanzania is trying to pursuade farmers to abide by a zero-grazing policy, which is aimed at slowing soil erosion/desertification. ‘Zero-Grazing’ means that cows are kept in one place, and fodder is brought to them. Relevance being that cowshit collection becomes very easy.


Ideas

1) Return to Tanzania with a budget. Starting small will be fine, as a small budget will ensure that we remain selective and help those that are truly interested.
2) Use whatever means of communication available to get the message out. Radio, Newspaper, Posting Swahili ads in villages, Encouraging word of mouth are all ways to let Tanzanians know that our services are available.
3) The service would be helping farmers cover the considerable costs of building a digester for their homes. Rural families will be asked to explain what costs they can cover, what tasks they can accomplish on their own. We then, consider their case, visit the site if it is an area with much interest, and make sure they go through with it.
4) Put the interested families in touch with other relevant NGOs E.g. Agro Forestry groups which can explain techniques for making a digester system more efficient.