By TalkAfrica Reporter
Busia County, Kenya: Women in Butula constituency located in Busia County are playing a big role in environmental conservation as they make money through making briquettes from the bamboo tree that is used as charcoal.
Instead of cutting down trees to burn charcoal to use as fuel, after the government put to a halt cutting trees for charcoal burning after the rampant destruction of forests, this group of more than 200 women adopted the technology.
Through the program dabbed as ‘earn as you cook’ the group provides the market for bamboo trees from other farmers in Butula, improving the economy of the region.
According to the group, the project has improved their lives from the income they earn; they are able to meet their daily bread.
Jacky Amadi, an environmentalist at Eco-green, a community-based organization, Busia; Sub County is leading in planting bamboo an initiative she relates to the group’s effort.
“In Busia County, Butula is leading in the planting of Bamboo trees. This has not only benefitted the residents economically but also is playing important role in environmental conservation. If you are on your way to this place you will realize the sub-county is a bit cooler and friendly compared to other parts of the county,” she said
She is urging women in other parts of the county to borrow a leaf from their Butula counterparts to improve their living standards as they take part in the well-being of environment conservation.
The group is now calling for help from the government and other well-wishers to enable them to pass the message to other parts of the country adding that with the high cost of refilling the cooking gas, and the prohibition of charcoal burning, making, and selling of briquette charcoal will be the best option to access cheap energy.
“The cost of refilling gas is becoming unbearable to most the Kenyan households. But with the available resources, we can make good use of them to better our lives. What we are doing is to call on government and other well-wishers to join hands to enable us to sensitize every household in Kenya on how to embrace this technology,” said Beatrice Odenya, a member of the group.
Odenya noted that through International Bamboo and Raton, they obtained briquette making machines as well as trained them on how to make them, unlike initially when they used to make the charcoal using their bare hands.
The group is further calling on the government to help them access the market adding that despite their efforts, the market is still a big challenge to them.
According to Phillis Magina, for many years women have remained behind in decision making in the community, in what was believed to be a result of a lack of empowerment and exposure, but with the project, many of them will be empowered and will be no longer come second in the community.
Forest clearing to burn Charcoal is one of the major causes of global warming and climatic change in the current generation.
