Grace's Briquette Project Update
True Origin Partnerships Friend Visits
The charcoal briquette project set up by a group of women in the Kilombero rice growing area of Malawi is progressing steadily, and we are delighted to be supporting it. Grace and her colleagues had the idea to turn waste rice husks into cooking fuel, saving them long walks to gather wood, and saving trees from being cut down to burn.
Katie, a friend of True Origin Partnerships is currently in Malawi with her family and recently visited the women’s group at Lupaso to see the briquette project. The machine was not running the day she visited but she was able to meet the group, see the buildings, chat to the women and buy a bag of briquettes which she tells me worked well for cooking.
She reported that the effects of deforestation in the country are very obvious, emphasising the need for improved supplies of alternative cooking fuels such as the briquettes that the women’s groups are making.
The next phase of the project will be to support the women to scale up production and True Origin Partnerships is exploring how best to do that. Exciting times ahead.
