Visual Project Management | Grant Work: The Power of Poo: Biogas_Paskova_016

(C-R) Christine Manirafasha, 26, and her husband, Jean Claude Niyibizi, 30, who are the recipients of an Oxfam biogas digester, prepare to eat some eggs they've cooked with it on November 16, 2017 in their home in Gakenke, Rwanda. Manirafasha says it is easier and quicker to cook with biogas, and that smoke had become a problem while cooking with wood. Her only adjustment, she says, was to remember to turn the gauge to the off position. Having the digester has also allowed her to develop further activities, like a chicken farm and tailoring business.Nearly half of all Rwandans live in poverty, relying on small-scale farming for survival without gas or electricity. With so many women and children spending hours of the day foraging for wood used for cooking and light, often damaging their eyes, lungs, the forests and atmosphere, a little inventiveness helps. Enter cow and enter pig -- not just as a source of food, but also the heat needed to cook it. Or more specifically, their poo -- the fuel fed to a biogas digester, a tank that converts organic waste into methane.

(C-R) Christine Manirafasha, 26, and her husband, Jean Claude Niyibizi, 30, who are the recipients of an Oxfam biogas digester, prepare to eat some eggs they've cooked with it on November 16, 2017 in their home in Gakenke, Rwanda. Manirafasha says it is easier and quicker to cook with biogas, and that smoke had become a problem while cooking with wood. Her only adjustment, she says, was to remember to turn the gauge to the off position. Having the digester has also allowed her to develop further activities, like a chicken farm and tailoring business. 

Nearly half of all Rwandans live in poverty, relying on small-scale farming for survival without gas or electricity. With so many women and children spending hours of the day foraging for wood used for cooking and light, often damaging their eyes, lungs, the forests and atmosphere, a little inventiveness helps. Enter cow and enter pig -- not just as a source of food, but also the heat needed to cook it. Or more specifically, their poo -- the fuel fed to a biogas digester, a tank that converts organic waste into methane.