'Low-tech solutions':
West Sacramento church members bring technology for cooking fuel & clean water to a province in Rwanda, Africa
Copyright News-Ledger, July 25, 2007
Volunteer KATIE KOELL explains a solar cooker to the director of prisons and to the mayor in Nyanza province, Rwanda
(courtesy photo)
By Steve Marschke
News-Ledger Editor
Members of a West Sacramento church are back from a 12-day trip to Africa. The five from Westside Covenant Church helped spread some technologies designed to help Rwandans solve some basic everyday challenges.
“We went at the end of June and were gone 12 days,” reports Anne Peterson. “One of our members and his wife (Scott and Mary Wagner) had gone to Rwanda a few years ago to visit. Scott has gone back several times, and he’s over there now helping with the coffee-growing cooperative and helping them rebuild their economy.”
In 1994, Rwanda was victimized by an internal war and genocide that cost over 800,000 people their lives, she explained.
“In fact, just before we got there, one of the people convicted in the killings told where another gravesite was, and they discovered 300 more bodies,” said Peterson.
Wagner has been active in helping Rwandan coffee farmers make more money from their crop. He has promoted new washing stations close to the places that coffee is farmed.
“We went to a coffee-washing station Scott helped build,” said Peterson. “That really helps increase the value of the coffee. They can separate the coffee ‘cherry’ from the coffee bean quickly now. You need to separate them less than six hours after harvest, optimally, or it starts to have a negative effect on the coffee. It starts to ferment. Having washing stations near the farmer helps. They bring the coffee by bike up to 20 kilometers, and the riders do that round trip up to four times a day.”
Joining the Wagners were Peterson and college students Shannon Holme, Tara Shuster and Katie Koell. The students, like the Wagners, are West Sacramento residents. The group tried to tackle a couple of other problems in Rwanda, enlisting the support of local officials to try to keep the ball rolling after they left.
One of those technologies was the “WAPI,” or Water Pasteurization Indicator. Safe water is tough to come by for rural Rwandans. By heating it, though, they can kill germs. The WAPI floats in a pot of water like a floating thermometer as it is cooked.
“WAPIs have a special kind of wax inside a polycarbonate tube, and it melts at the same temperature at which the water is pasteurized,” explained Peterson. “When the wax melts and becomes clear, it’s safe to drink the water.”
The WAPIs are reusable.
“We took over 100,” Peterson said. “Our college group made them. We gave most of them to a health center in Nyanza (province).”
SCOTT and MARY WAGNER (foreground) in the market at Nyanza
(Courtesy photo)
Another problem faced by Rwandans is cooking.
“90 percent of the people cook with wood,” said Peterson. “The whole country is under a haze of smoke. I visited a school where every day the child has to bring their own drinking water and a piece of wood to cook lunch. You always see people carrying wood. They have a deforestation problem.”
The Westside group brought along an alternative way of cooking, using a resource more plentiful in that part of Africa.
“We brought reflective solar cookers,” Peterson said. “They fold down to about the size of a notebook. It’s just foil and cardboard, pretty much. It reflects sunlight onto a dark pot. They already have some dark pots, and you can also use soot or paint to darken a pot. It gets to over 250 degrees – you can boil water with it.”
Near the equator and 6,000 feet above sea level, this section of Rwanda has plenty of sunlight.
“We took one cooker and supplies to make about 100 more. We trained one college student in Butare – he’s doing a presentation for the local university and is going to start a small business making and selling solar cookers. All you need is foil, cardboard and glue, which they can get.”
By spreading these low-tech solutions, Peterson hopes the Wagners and their team have helped plant a seed that leads to better life in Nyanza province.
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