2006 Updates
As of October 2006, we have raised $8,000 of our minimum $10,000 goal. Despite our modest funds, we have pushed on and reached several important milestones in recent months.
In May 2006, we began a very fruitful collaboration with the San Francisco Professional Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (www.ewb-sfp.org). EWB jumped right in taking charge of producing professional prototypes and designs for production. Their dedicated members delivered an easy-to-assemble design and five completed stoves within three weeks, just in time for our trip to Khartoum. They have remained involved in further iterations on the design to incorporate feedback, assembly instructions, help with performance testing, and consult with us about the types of machines that could ease mass production. They have also helped us build flexibility into the assembly process so that the stove can be cut out and assembled using a wide variety of simple tools available in Darfur.
 |
| IDP men from Abu Shouk camp examine our stove design. - July 2006 |
 |
| IDP women at Abu Shouk camp talk with us about how the stove will cook. - July 2006 |
In July 2006, Ashok Gadgil and Susan Amrose visited Khartoum and Darfur (Nyala and El Fashir) with the latest prototype of the stove. Working with CHF-Sudan, we demonstrated the benefits of the stove to several NGOs and bilateral and multilateral agencies working in Darfur. All our presentations were well received. We had many useful discussions with aid workers from the field as well as those who were familiar with technology dissemination in Darfur. We also took the stove into two IDP camps: Abu Shouk in North Darfur and Otash in South Darfur. In the camps, we showed the stove to groups of IDP women and men and received some important feedback on the design. All responses were very positive! In addition, while in Khartoum, we identified potential fabricators for mass production and also train a team of local workers to conduct tests of stove performance for quality control.
Brian Tachibana with members of the EWB-SFP and LBNL team and the latest stove design.
- Sept. 2006 In September 2006, Brian Tachibana from San Mateo, and also a member of EWB-SFP, quit his job to spend two months an intern in Khartoum as an engineering intern with CHF-Sudan. He is there to oversee first the building of the stoves locally, then the technical rollout of 50 stoves and social rollout of 5000 stoves.
The first set of stoves manufactured in Khartoum along with a metal worker who helped build them. These stoves are now on their way to IDP families. - Oct. 2006
In October 2006, the survey forms for feedback from the families were translated in Arabic, and pilot testing of the survey forms with IDP families completed in Darfur. First 50 stoves were manufactured in Khartoum and shipped for testing by IDP families in North and South Darfur who will cook with them for three weeks before providing crucial feedback. Brian Tachibana will work with EWB-SFP and LBNL technical staff to incorporate the feedback and then start off production of our first 5000 stoves for dissemination before returning in December.
Great progress was made in November 2006 as we successfully began a 50-stove technical field trial in IDP camps! Fifty stoves were given to fifty IDP families, split evenly between North and South Darfur. The families were trained in efficient fire-tending techniques and then used the stoves for their daily cooking for three weeks (into December). During this time, families were visited weekly by CHF staff and surveyed about the stove's ease of use, ability to cook, amount of wood saved, and overall satisfaction. The results were overwhelmingly positive.
IDP women receive training to tend the stove more efficiently before the technical rollout.
A Berkeley-Darfur Stove in an IDP "kitchen" being used
regularly for meals.
In December 2006, Brian Tachibana finished up his work in Khartoum. The three-week 50-stove technical rollout was completed and the results were tallied. Feedback was given to the EWB team who will continue to modify and improve the stove design. Participating families were given the option of purchasing their stove at a nominal price after the trial was complete (set above the price of stove as scrap metal) and we are happy to report that every family chose to purchase and continue using the stove! We also started our interviews and search for the next intern to go to Sudan to help build 3000 Berkeley-Darfur stoves for field tests of methods of dissemination ("social rollout"). One hundred fully assembled Berkeley-Darfur stoves and one hundred flat kits (which include all of the pieces cut but unassembled) are now ready in Khartoum to facilitate starting the social rollout, and start training the IDP craftsmen in assembly of the Berkeley-Darfur stoves. In addition, 5000 cast iron grates have been ordered and are in the process of being cast for the stoves needed for the social rollout.
