EcoVentures International

At the April 2006 capacity building workshop that EVI conducted in Dar es Salaam, the new EEDI partners from the Arusha/Moshi region were introduced to agri-waste fuel briquettes for the first time. After returning to Arusha, they met up with the Women for the Development of Science and Technology Association (WODSTA) that has been supplying briquettes from a large plant in Moshi to schools and industrial centers in Arusha.

EEDI-Arusha/Moshi partners recognized the opportunity to begin a retail enterprise for local households so that bio-waste briquettes can be available on the household level.  They decided to take advantage of this opportunity and have begun purchasing briquettes in bulk from WODSTA and selling them on a retail base out of one of the Ngarenaro Youth Self-Help Group's workshop.  In so doing, they are for the first time providing local Arusha homes with access to this alternative energy source--at half the price of the equivalent amount of charcoal.

Since the "Alternative Energy Enterprise Initiative" has begun, the youth leaders have watched their customer base grow, while at the same time recognizing that one of the biggest hurdles to the growth in use of the briquettes is lack of consumer knowledge.  And so, as part of their effort, EEDI-Arusha/Moshi is also advertising the environmental and health advantages of using briquettes rather than charcoal or fuelwood in the home. 

According to one of the youth founders of the EEDI member Ngarenaro Youth Self-Help Group, "We are environmental entrepreneurs."