Three out of three

For reasons that I am not going to get into here, I have not been able to do as much fundraising as I originally hoped. However, the good news is that of the three applications that I submitted, I am delighted to say they were all successful. The combined total adding personal sponsorship and sale of DVDs takes the amount raised to a little over ₤11,000. This may not sound that substantial, especially compared to the hundreds of thousands I was able to bring in at Groundwork and Addaction, but it nearly doubles the annual turnover of the charity.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our three funders:

• the Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Union Council, and indirectly my old boss Eamon, who helped secure the donation who are supporting a biogas project with the Milk Producers Association in Punata (see below for more information)
• Greenboard, and in particular Stefano Casalotti, who are supporting a project where young people from La Cumbre community will create what we are pretty sure is Bolivia's first renewable energy powered primary school including biogas, wind power, pedal power, solar power and a solar heating system as well as building a new kitchen
• the British Embassy in La Paz who are supporting a biogas and eco-latrine project in Achacachi by Lake Titicaca. This grant was aided thanks to a chance meeting with a DFID representative in a bar during a visit to La Paz.

Last week I spent two days in Punata where we are working with the Milk Producers Association, which is a kind of Bolivian equivalent to a trade union or co-operative, to demonstrate the benefits of biogas technology to its 1,100 members. Four families were selected from different geographical districts of its membership where we are installing biogas systems which will act as pilot or demonstration projects.

Each family provides manpower in the form of digging the whole where we will install the biodigestor as well as signing an agreement that they will look after the system once installed as well as host visits from the community and external visitors.

There are four stages:

• meet the beneficiaries, assess their suitability and designate the area to install the biogas system, for which they must dig a 10 metre by 1 metre hole
  
• install the biodigestor and fill it up with manure and 3,000 litres of water to start the biodigestion process. It takes between 5 - 15 days before gas is produced. I never realised I was coming to Bolivia to quite literally shovel shit, but it is worth it when we return and see especially the women's and children's reaction when there is gas
  
• once there is gas, a reservoir, pipes and stoves are installed, and the system is ready for use
• monitoring visit and maintenance workshop

Here are some pictures from stages one and two, which took place last week in Punata. There was nearly a diplomatic incident here, as this gentleman has a Man United cap.

And my personal favourite is this one, the burnt out cabin of a truck that has been converted into the family's kitchen. It even has an electric lightbulb.