By Vincent Gunde
A non profit making institution of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lilongwe -Tiwale Limodzi Foundation, will implement a one year project “The Rural Clean Energy and Green Energy pilot project targeting the area of Group Village Headman Mwandauka in the area of Traditional Authority Mponela in Dowa district.
Tiwale Limodzi Foundation is complimenting activities done by the Commissions of the Archdiocese of Lilongwe addressing the multifaceted challenges facing communities within the Archdiocese’s jurisdiction.
The pilot initiative is building on interventions implemented by CADECOM where communities expressed interest in briquette making and use.
Presenting the pilot project to the District executive committee (Dec) in Dowa, Tiwale Limodzi Foundation’s Program Manager Grace Ndhlovu Langwe, said the project has targeted direct 160 active participants, 60 percent women representation of core beneficiaries, as they manage household energy systems and bear the health burden of indoor smoke.
Langwe said the overarching goal of the pilot initiative is to enhance access to sustainable, community – produced cooking fuels and technologies in rural Mponela and reducing traditional firewood dependency, improving vulnerable household livelihoods, and driving forest conservation.
She said the initiative will increase direct access to and rapid adoption of community – produced biomass briquettes and energy – efficient cook stoves among women and youth in Mponela, while systematically strengthening local forestry governance and resilience.
The Programs Manager said among other activities, the initiative will empower self – managed local groups through localized clean energy asset distribution and technical biomass training to secure alternative fuel supply chains.
“The initiative is targeting 8 groups trained focusing on briquette and stove production, it will establish a Constitution guidelines for the 8 core production units, among others,” said Langwe.   .
She said the initiative is an alternative fuel adoption of minimizing community dependency on tradition wood or fuels by driving alternative bio – briquette and clean stove adoption at the household and micro – enterprise level.
The Programs Manager said to successfully pivot households from three – stone fires to clean option, the project will implement key measures such as community – led campaigns, commercial market linkages, and stove construction drives.
Ndhlovu said in order to obtain successful results, the project will use long – term initiative sustainability to ensure the target group continues to use cleaner bio – mass without relying on recurring donor support through self – funded maintenance, no staff overhead, localized feed stock, and decentralized feed stock, among others.
In his remarks, Dowa district Civil Society Organizations Network Chairperson Maxwell Kadutsa, called on partners implementing their various interventions in the district to support the pilot project for it to achieve its planned objectives.
Kadutsa urged Tiwale Limodzi Foundation to provide progress reports of the pilot project to enhance cooperation, transparency and accountability.
The one year “Rural Clean Energy and Green Energy pilot initiative will be implemented with support from Catholic Archdiocese of Munich and Freising in Germany through Mission Munich to the tune of 20,000 Euros.
