Angelina Nyajiech arranges briquettes after production at Mangateen IDPs camp in Juba on Thursday,18th Jan 2024. Photo Credit: Charles Wote/Eye Radio

Despite being internally displaced, women at Mangateen camp in Juba are apparently at the frontline of South Sudan’s fight against climate change after embarking on production of briquette – an environment friendly charcoal to earn a living.

Supported by Gender Empowerment for South Sudan Organization (GESSO), the activity aims to economically empower the selected women and girls by providing them with skills in the production and marketing of climate-smart and energy-saving stoves.

They were trained between July and November 2023 and provided with startup kits by the Gender Empowerment for South Sudan Organization, a Juba-based women-led organization.

“We now know how to mix different raw materials, grind and make it as charcoals.” says Angelina Nyajiech, a displaced woman who has been sheltering at Mangateen IDPs camp in Juba since 2018.

A mother to six children, Nyajiech said producing briquettes and stoves helps her in putting food on the table for her family and address other family needs.

“We get money from it, and we are benefiting from it because there are a lot of people coming to buy these charcoals and they likes them because these charcoals don’t have smoke and can last for long it cooks a lot of things like two saucepans and still remains.” Angelina said.  

The 25 women, among whom are widows and disabled, meets at the workstation every morning to collect charcoal dust, grind and mix it with different raw materials to achieve the desired thickness.

They then leave it to dry for ten days before it declared ready for sale.

The clean energy entrepreneurs use a manual briquette press machine, a mixing machine, and a crushing machine to mix raw materials such as charcoal dust to produce clean energy briquettes.

Nyajiech says they are producing a long-burn briquette made by mixing one basin of charcoal dust with five liters of clay binder.

The faster-burn briquettes, according to her, are made by mixing one basinful of charcoal dust with 2 liters of clay paste and cassava starch binder.

“The work starts with collecting charcoal dust and other raw materials, mixing it then add mud and mix it with the grounded charcoals, then it becomes charcoal. These charcoals become thick and can cook very well. Later when we get more customers, we will increase our work until it grows big.”

The women produce about 300 briquettes a day and sells five pieces at only 1,000 pounds.

“There is groundnut husk you burn and make it into briquette and the grounded charcoal you collect and also make it into briquette,” said Loyce Dendi Abdallah, another entrepreneur in the fuel briquettes.

“When you are making it, you mix the mud. One jug and a half and when you now grind it in the machine and filter it, you can now pour it in the machine and mix it very well and now it is ready.”

Loyce said the work is tedious and comes with setbacks, which, according to her, require physical strength.

She said operating manual machines is physically demanding, leading to fatigue and strain, especially for women who may not have the same physical strength as men.

“This work is hard if you don’t have energy, you will not be able to work plus our stay here at the IDPs camp is a stay of suffering, sometimes you can go for two days without food or water.”

“If you come here since morning, your kids will just sleep without food that is why we are hustling here and if there is a good organization that will come and help us, let it come and help us.”

“And we pray that God bring peace so that we go back to where we came from and this work, we are building so that if any of us go back to their place, they will be able to teach others like how we were taught.”

According to the Gender Empowerment for South Sudan Organization, the use of briquettes reduces dependence on firewood and conserve the environment.

It also reduces the risk of exposure for women and girls to health hazards and saves them economically, according to GESSO.

“One is that you promote their confidence that they are actually not useless in the society when we give them the skills, they can produce,” Sarah Nyanath, the Executive Director of Gender Empower for South Sudan Organization told Eye Radio in an interview in Juba.

She said they want to see empowered women who are able to provide for their families.

“Use of briquettes now it will mean that they are going to be part and partial of those they will say when they started using these products in our society or in Juba, these women are the ones who introduced this source of fuel.”

“Second is that to protect them from being exposed to danger like those who go outside Juba to go look for firewood.”

“Instead of them now going out to look for firewood because they can’t afford to buy the charcoal, they will have the source of fuel that they themselves are making it.” She added.

The Gender Empowerment for South Sudan Organization says the initiative does not only provide the women with a source of income but also addresses deforestation concerns by promoting the use of sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives.

It added that the women play a vital role in mitigating environmental degradation and fostering a more sustainable future.

Sarah Sarah Nyanath explains how the initiative is benefiting the selected women.

“The product has begun to get into the market and the people has begun to appreciate it, then the production needs to increase so you won’t be like talking of producing 100 in a day, they should be talking in producing 1000s in a day,” she stressed.

According to her the women are now producing “300 in a day is what they are producing but if the market begins to come in so it is being expected that even they may not need to work only during day hour, they may even you know like, this is what we were discussing last week.”

“They said, when we get the market, this can actually, because companies don’t sleep, they have shifts so if they end up with shifts, then the 25 women may end up being the board of this project.”