Raising Gabdho Foundation LTD
Strengthening the Community’s Resilience to Environmental Challenges
Location: Bidibidi refugee settlement in Uganda
Host: Save the Children International in Uganda
Developer: Raising Gabdho Foundation
Funding Secured: The pilot for this innovation received $15,000 USD from Response Innovation Lab.
Funding Needed: Depends on the scope of activities
Website: www.raisinggabdho.org
The Raising Gabdho Foundation engages community members through workshops and training programs focused on developing clean energy products and living sustainably. The foundation does this by raising awareness on clean energy products and by teaching community members how to construct locally-sourced energy-efficient solutions, such as clay stove bases and bio-waste fertilizers.
The Challenge
For daily cooking, refugee households in Bidibidi settlement use 1.6 kg of firewood while Ugandan host communities use 2.1 kg. Clean energy products in Bidibidi settlement are in short supply, are often low quality, and have a short lifespan. This discourages both refugees and host communities from adopting clean energy products since they require continuous maintenance from technical/after-sale teams. These difficulties perpetuate the use of conventional energy sources and contribute to polluting greenhouse gas emissions.
The Solution
Founded in 2015, the Raising Gabdho Foundation (RGF) is a social enterprise that aims to improve access to renewable energy in underserved communities by engaging community members across the value chain. The Raising Gabdho Foundation has a human-centered design approach to energy solutions that address energy poverty challenges and environmental degradation. RGF engages and supports communities to design sustainable solutions and links them to partners for market access. In 2019, RGF piloted their innovation in one of the hardest to reach, underserved villages in Zone-3 of the Bidibidi settlement with a population of approximately 2,000 people (500 households).
The Impact
72 community members in Bidibidi were selected to undergo human-centered design training in the area of energy and environment.
Training workshops covered the production of carbonized briquettes, handmade briquette machines, improved stove-bases made from clay soil, production of fertilizers from bio-waste, and building human capacity in entrepreneurship skills. With this range of topics, RGF is exercising integrated approaches that start with the gathering of unused grass (which is often burnt for clearing land otherwise) as the biomass for the briquettes and ends with the production of compost through vermiculture. This provides energy solutions and also improves soil fertility while encouraging a reduction of bush-burning practices.
The approach combines technical skills with awareness-raising on clean energy and provides opportunities for domestic uses and business opportunities.
Success and Learnings
Community buy-in for the project was a major success as well as support from existing partners
Establishment of one commercial outlet that sells briquettes, stove bases, and heat-conserving cooking bags.
Challenges to Date
Language barrier for the key trainers
The short-time frame for operation
Overlap with food distributions has resulted in the rescheduling of some activities
Next Steps
Create market linkages and handover the management of the production site and outlet to the community members.
