January 2021
Period: Monday 18th to Saturday 23rd, January 2021
This year, AJPER continued to plant trees in Andalamengoke. We were 32 members, 22 men (including Mr. Romain) and 10 women. Youth associations from churches of Andranomaintso, the local community, the students of the college of Andalamengoke led by its director, the national park of Zombitse represented by its director are all actively participated in this tree planting. This time it was Pieter Vranckx, a technician from an NGO called OmniVerdi, who handed over the seedlings and the planted seeds. Pieter is a specialist in dry forest restoration.
The green site of 2 ha, 3 700 seedlings using method 1 were planted. For the second site of 1 ha, 3 000 briquettes of ARKA were planted. So in total, 6 700 trees were planted.
We also had lots of watermellon...
....and visited Zombitse National Park
January and February 2021
AJPER started to work on its clay stove project. We have started the extraction of raw clay from Romain’s land in Ambonifahidrano (Beravina) on 10 January 2021 and 31 January 2021. The quality of the clay is tested ok for the project.
Team led by Betombo, worked on the pottery (clay making) and designed some prototypes of stoves for charcoal and firewood.
We also built the OVEN in which the clay stoves will be cooked.
The oven was completely built at the end of March 2021.
We tried to cook the prototypes inside the oven and it worked. What a joy when the first smoke started to raise on the top of the chemney.
April 2021
Period: Friday 9th to Sunday 11th, April 2021
AJPER was invited to visit a private property in Vangomaha, Kelilalina in Ranomafana, close to the National Park.
we stayed 10 km east from Ranomafana. 35 AJPER members participated on this trip.
On friday, we left Fianarantsoa in the morning to join Ranomafana.
We visited the property on day 01 which is a land of 29 ha. In fact, this property belongs to a colleague of Romain.
We were camping and of course used tents.
The second day, we visited a small town called Kelilalina, at 2 km from the camping site. There, we visited a wood carving workshop of a craftsman called Fidy. He also shared his experience on renewable energy such as the use of bamboo. This guy is a specialist on rural development since he has been working with several NGOs that focus on rural areas since 1994.
The late afternoon of Saturday was a day off, so some students went to Ranomafana for the hot spring swimming pool.
On sunday, we started our day with tree planting. We planted clove trees and other trees.
!!! After this trip, the governement announced that Matsiatra Ambony region is closed due to COVID-19!!!
July 2021: Trip to Andringitra
Period: Thursday 01st to Saturday 3rd August 2021
Located at 106 km from Fianarantsoa, Andringitra is the unique national park of Haute Mariatra Region. Andringitra is classified as a world heritage site by the UNESCO due to its specificity in term of biodiversity (Andringitra National Park – Wikipedia).
Andringitra also offers a spectacular sightseeing for hike lovers. Despite this, few people living in Fianarantsoa have visited this park, including AJPER members. AJPER is a youth association based in Fianarantsoa that promotes the use of renewable energy and raises the awareness of Malagasy people on biodiversity conservation through small projects such as tree planting, research and development of economic stoves, environmental education, tree planting, etc. AJPER as well visits natural reserves and national parks such as Ranomafana, Anja, Isalo, Zombitse etc. The objectives of the trip projects are to bring members to be in touch with natural environment, to observe the reality so that they can think outside the box. After the long period of lockdown from the COVID 19 crisis, members are disoriented, demotivated and feel uncertain of their own future, a trip would help them to be resilient. Graduated students, members at AJPER will leave Fianarantsoa for work or study in few months so Romain and I thought about a trip to thank them of their contribution at AJPER.
This time, AJPER visited Andringitra National Park and be on the second highest peak of Madagascar called Peak Boby at 2,658 m above the sea. The trip lasted 3 days / 2 nights.
Day 1: We left Fianarantsoa with a taxi brousse to Ambalavao; then hired another taxibrousse to take us to Namoly, a village close to the park.
Day 2: We started to hike into the park, following trails inside forests, swimming and enjoying the waterfall; set up the tents and slept inside the park
Day 3: Time to visit peak Bôby, the second highest peak of Madagascar
It was an outstanding experience for most of us because it was the first time to see frozen water in the wild.
After the peak, we walked back to join the car and then left to Fianrantsoa.
July, August, September: time to work on the stoves
As planned, AJPER produced the first clay stoves that were sold at the local market of Fianarantsoa.
To produce the clay stove, all AJPER members participated in all making processes:
- Raw clay extraction in Beravina
- Preparation of the clay before the pottery work such as squashing and trampling the raw clay, mixing up the clay with ash, laying the clay on the ground etc...
- Making the stove by using a mold we manufactured
Then the stoves were put under the shade and we had to wait for 3 weeks before the cooking.
The cooking time
After three days / 2 nights , the stoves were ready.
The cooked stoves: members worked on the adjustment of the stoves so that every piece fits the place where it should be inside the external bucket.
We also worked on a firewood stove called Basic 2. Basic 2 is from Mr Richard Fetzner. The amazing point with Basic 2 is that, it does not need to be cooked before usage. Mud and a little cement mixed together to get the Basic 2 by using molds. Basic 2 saves firewood and is efficient in term of heat.
Richard's basic 2
Safidy and Julian with the Basic 2
Then AJPER reproduced the Basic 2 and here following are the pictures of the test we made. Here, we cooked rice.
After all the stoves work and to thank members on their great work, we had lunch together
A week after the cooking, AJPER stoves were sold at the market of Fianarantsoa.
In parrallel to the clay making , AJPER members as well did video footage twice. The objective of the video was to help the crowdfunding for the bio-pellet project. To learn more about the biopellet, please visit:https://biopelletsenergy.org/
The second video footage was done with the great help of Famato, from Tandavanala NGO in Fianarantsoa.
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Not always good news, in August, we learnt that our tree planting site was burned again.
This was our first activity in 2021, unfortunately reduced in ashes.
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November 2021
Clay team continued their researches on new prototype to improve the first one. Here are some stoves they made ( with firewood and charcoal).
December 2021
In December 2021, we were focused on two activities:
- The crowdfunding with Eine-Welt-Labor for the Bio pellet project and,
- The small direct help for food donation for hungry community in the south of Madgascar (see the blog about this here .
Both activities were important for AJPER and hopefully, we could do it successfully because:
"ZUSAMMEN SCHAFFEN WIR DAS"
Aknowledgement
I would like to thank, the members of AJPER. We volunteered to do all of those works. Thank you guys.
Thank you Mr Romain, our senior member, always be there for us.
I also thank all the German teams including the elders and the youngers. Thank you for the technical and financial supports
Thanks to ISTE and the Director that gave us the workshop