Briquette Project

Grace Mwanguti a woman rice farmer in Karonga, Northern Malawi wants to start a business to turn the waste product from rice milling into a useful fuel for cooking. The idea is not new, but what is really different is that this will be a business to be run by women for women. It will help ease the lives of women rice farmers who for generations have had the back-breaking job of collecting firewood in the hills and also help to stop the denudation of the hill slopes itself a serious environmental and climate emergency issue. The business will also give women training in management and computing skills, and potentially more confidence in their abilities in a society where women do not traditionally have equality of opportunity with men. 

JTS and the Balmore trust are raising money to  help Grace and her farming colleagues turn the vision into a reality. The start-up project has now begun, and the women are busy building sheds and learning about financial management. 

The project encompasses building two brick sheds, provide two briquette making machines, storage, management computing facilities and training and running for the first four months of work. Because of a large spike in Covid cases since November and a high death rate we have now included provision of PPE for the workers and their families in the budget. In consultation with our colleagues in Malawi we agreed to send £1500 from project funds to buy mask making equipment (sewing machines), cloth and sanitising equipment, in order to try to keep the women safe as they work. The Covid spike has now passed but has left much uncertainty. Several politicians are among the dead and, because testing is not available to all who might need it, the infection rate and death toll is believed to have been considerably higher than the formal figures show. 

Our budget is £10,000 to include the additional PPE. So far £4,000 has been donated. We would like this building project to be completed by the time the rice harvest commences in May/June this year when the first rice hasks could be processed. 

Through this project we will:

• Support the development of an emerging woman’s business

• Make the daily lives of women less arduous

• Contribute to the manufacture of inexpensive cooking fuel for families

• Reduce the problems created by undisposed, rotting rice hasks

• Help upskill members of this rural community, particularly women

• Support ongoing work against climate change by reducing deforestation.

I wonder if you can help. Please donate any amount no matter how small, through our Total Giving page here

Mary Popple

Chair of JTS and Trustee of the Balmore Trust