After being in Chrauk Tiek, Cambodia for a month Sanu Kaji Shrestha, founder and chairman of FoST (Foundation of Sustainable Technologies) is returning back to Nepal.

They have successfully conducted a briquette training workshop in the Grady Grossman school in Kompon Speu Province in Aural District.

They trained about 46 local community members including teachers and students.

They produced about 500 kg briquettes from different raw materials available locally.

They built seven briquette presses and 42 dies for mass production of briquettes.

The founder of the Grady Grossman School, the American Kari Grady Grossman, is setting up a production unit in the school and a marketing and sales unit in Phnom Penh.

They hope to start the business from first February 2008.

                         

For the whole story, please go to Kari's blog. It's a great story worth reading!

http://www.gradygrossmanschool.org/wordpress/




From Kari's blog "Be The Change Network":

The process of pulping scrap paper, mixing it with a raw material and putting it through the press is not difficult, but it is a little messy; yet the participants seemed to be having a good time. Sanu offered expert instruction and encouragement.   Certainly, it is easier than traveling to the forest to cut down trees, and more convenient work than forcing children to skip school to help cut down trees.  
 
I was most proud of the 9 women who joined the training; several showing up with babies on their backs. Three women traveled all the way from a Tropaing Ongrong, a village 7 kilometers to the east.

They had heard through the grapevine about our training and decided to come, and as Chou Leng said to me , ” the trees will all be gone soon, so I need to know how to do this.”  She has experienced this problem firsthand when her former village in the Takeo province ran out of trees and she had to start cooking with cow dung.

All our trainees are now also certified to become trainers, and we plan to export our skill to other villages where people want to learn the process and support their school.  Workshops can be conducted at our facility or we can set up new ones.  We will charge for this service, so we have another income generation stream for our school....