Poop Into Fuel

One of the organizations that sends me frequent e-mails is Global Citizen. Today they sent me one with the title “Poop Into Fuel.” It was quite interesting and gave me the idea for this blog.

Along with many other developing countries, Uganda has lost much of its forests due to trees being cut to get fuel for cooking food. People (mostly girls and women) spend much of their time going to get the tree branches and carry them home on their backs. Likewise, they have problems with lack of sanitary facilities, especially when they have bowel movements.

A man whose name is Bosco Odyer developed a special system that converts poop (solid human waste) into fuel for Ugandan cooks. The finished product is somewhat like charcoal briquettes which cause almost zero odor and smoke when burned. Mr. Odyer is in the Kole District which is in the eastern part of Uganda. Water for People (which is in the first category of my HelpingWorldwide.org website) assisted him and some other people with similar goals.

National Geographic Magazine did a story about that in their December 2014 issue. The Gates Foundation is very interested in the subject. Eco-Fuel Africa is led by Sanga Moses and has similar goals and activities. Likewise, you can find more information through a Google search.

I am very fortunate that when my wife or I need to cook, it is only necessary to put the food on or into a stove and push some buttons. More than one billion people in the world do not have that opportunity.