Rural Disabled Women Association (RUDIWA)

About 95 percent of energy consumption need of rural Ugandans is met from biomass sources derived from the forest, shrub land, and animal waste and crop residues with lots of smoke having direct negative impact on environment and health, especially causing respiratory and eye diseases ---- cooking is associated with long hours spent collecting increasingly scarce wood making it hard for some households to cook more than one meal a day.

There is particular need of production of charcoal briquettes and energy saving stoves due to the scarcity of firewood and trees for charcoal-making. 

Sustainable sources of wood fuel have diminished. Many poor families’ household budgets suffer from domestic energy expenses. Deforestation has become a worldwide epidemic due to poverty, pressures of population growth, and low innovations in the clean energy sector and so on.

The project intends to establish a very useful model to compress recycled materials such as paper, cardboard, sawdust, soil and organic waste, to make fuel for cooking, which is equal or superior to charcoal. The resultant briquettes are also cost-effective and can be made to produce less smoke, thus being beneficial in terms of human health. There will be need for energy cook stoves.

Rural Disabled Women Association (RUDIWA) is a community based organization working in Bundibugyo district, western Uganda. Its vision is to work towards a community where there is justice, fairness, rights protection, environmental health, education and disabled women’s economic empowerment irrespective of religion, physical ability and political inclinations.

RUDIWA mission is to improve the status of young women and girls through advocacy and empowerment. It does this by building their capacity to promote health, economic empowerment and education and to eliminate all forms of violence and discrimination. By actively promoting girls education, prevention of child marriage, teenage pregnancies and promoting agricultural practices that lead to a greener environment.

Our future goals are to improve the status of young women and girls through advocacy and empowerment, improved climate smart farming practices, women and girls equipped with life skills, promote girls education, and prevent and respond to gender based violence, women and girls engaged in environmental health activities for climate change mitigation.

Uganda is predominantly an agricultural country with above 85 percent of its people engaged in growing crops and rearing domestic animals.  Uganda is an energy-deficient country, with supply unable to meet demand – for both domestic and industrial use. 

With only 5% of the rural population having access to electricity, more than 90% of the country’s total energy needs in Uganda come from biomass sources. Of this, wood accounts for 80%, charcoal 10% and crop residues at nearly 4%. 

Sustainable sources of wood fuel have diminished. Many poor families’ household budgets suffer from domestic energy expenses. Deforestation has become a worldwide epidemic due to poverty, pressures of population growth, and low innovations in the clean energy sector and so on. 

Research and introducing briquette for use   both at households and small-scale industries to solve the ever-soaring prices and shortages of other fuel sources.

Training and equiping rural communities especially women and women groups and women with disabilities in rural areas with skills of making briquette charcoal pellets as an affordable cooking fuel sources.

Establishing a rural small scale factory to produce briquette, while creating employment to the local young women and youth.

To ensure the success of this project and the spread of the innovation to benefit a wider community, continuous training of the members and other people in the locality is important. We will continue with training periodically, and also continue collaborating with other groups and CBOs to ensure the spread of this knowledge and skills on sustainable project and environmental conservation during and after project funding.

Briquette is a new innovation alternative source of cooking fuel that can be used both domestic and in small scale industries. Briquette is made from waste products (coffee, rice husks, banana peels, charcoal dust, and sawdust) –the waste ground and the products mixed with water in various proportions. The pellets are then granulated using locally fabricated moulds before being left to dry on the sun and then packaged.

To establish a rural small scale factory to produce briquette, while creating employment to women with disabilities and their counter parts in rural areas.

The project will be evaluated from the point of view of beneficiaries; every beneficiary will always draw-up a periodic work plan for implementing project activities.

Each member will therefore, at the end of the work plan period, evaluate the level of achievement of the set objectives and targets. There will be a general internal evaluation by the management committee and all the drawing up new strategies and setting of targets.

To ensure the success of this project and the spread of the innovation to benefit a wider community, continuous training of the members and other people in the locality is important. 

Over 70% of women been trained and acquired skills in the making of Briquette for self-reliance and able to take back their children to school plus providing other basic needs and training other community members across Rwenzori region on the making and use of briquattes for environmental health.

Opening up rural mini briquatte factories  to commercialise the production of briquette for women with disabilities in the two districts where climate chanage has been at its worst resulting into devastating effects on human life.