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During the past 6 months we have been facing difficult challenges with the sale of fuel briquettes in and around Goma.  The most recurrent complaint from our customers with regards to briquettes has been smoke and efficiency. So we have just completed a re-training of our 600 pressing machine groups around Virunga, we have restructured the number of people working with the presses on the ground, and we have changed the ingredients of the fuel briquettes slightly. We have also reviewed the packaging, and cut the selling price. So we have been busy!

Fuel efficient stoves, donated by Mercy Corps, burn briquettes provided by WWF.

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At the end of last year we received a donation to buy a piece of land strategically located in Munigi, which is on the outskirts of Goma en route to Rumangabo and the Gorilla Sector, and a stone’s throw from the airport.

This month we started building a Briquette Warehouse on this land. The warehouse will be home to all of our marketing activities, in addition to facilitating the storage of sacks and the drying and quality control of fuel briquettes before they go out onto the open market.

In short, this is a massive step in our bid to eradicate charcoal.

The plot of land where our warehouse is being built.

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Last week the Rangers of Virunga and the organization World Wildlife Fund gave vital support to the briquette program.

The Rangers, thanks to Emmanuel’s instruction (and financing), purchased 450 fuel briquette sacks, and WWF donated 450 improved Jiko Punguza stoves (these stoves usually cost $5.50 to make). These stoves, as their name suggests, make cooking more efficient by their improved design. Read the full story »

It is over 1 year since we launched the briquette program, and I would like to share some of our achievements:

600 briquette pressing machines on the ground
3,500 jobs created in rural areas
4,000 sacks of fuel briquettes produced each month
A carpentry workshop producing 20 briquette pressing machines per day

A group of press machine beneficiaries in Rumangabo

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Back in July 2007 I was working in Mutsora, the northern station of Virunga National Park. I remember hearing about the massacre of the Rugendo family of gorillas from Emmanuel. But it wasn’t until I opened an e-mail from an American lady, who broke my heart with her message, that I realized the horror of the what had just happened. She was pregnant just like Mburanumwe, one of the murdered gorillas.

Mburanumwe is buried behind Senkwekwe at Rumangabo - how pertinent that the Senkwekwe Center will be a stone’s throw from the graves.

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First of all a big hello to all readers. I am back in Goma from maternity leave, with more energy than ever to make sure that fuel briquettes are sold like hot cakes …. a difficult (but not impossible) task to achieve!

Previously we told you about the moving truck going around the streets of Goma with 6 guys dressed with gorilla suits, selling sacks of fuel briquettes, and playing a song Katya specially wrote about the “new charcoal”. It was a complete success, and we will continue doing it every day now.

But of course that is not enough. So we have opened 12 shops in the busiest areas of town, where makala (charcoal) is being sold (and of course where our target market is!)

Balemba and the saleswomen at the shop in the “Deux Lampes” neighborhood in Goma

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Here is a general update about our Fuel Briquette Program here in and around Virunga National Park:

1. 100% of our fuel briquette production output is being sold. Both April and May’s stock was delivered to the five refugee camps in Goma (Bulengo, Mugunga 1, Mugunga 2, Mugunga 3 and Kibati). WWF is purchasing our monthly yield through their emergency fuel fund, and Mercy Corps is in charge of the distribution.

Refugees waiting in line, for their share of fuel briquettes

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The Briquette Program is advancing well and I will be giving you a full update this weekend.

In the mean-time and for those of you who do not know about briquettes as an alternative energy to the charcoal production that is destroying the forests of Virunga National Park, here is a video we put together with Katya and Balemba:

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