LWF Myanmar Supporting for Energy Saving technique in Delta
Sel Ma village is located along the small river near the Pyapon – Bogalay highway road, Pyapon Township, Delta. The main occupations of the people from that village are farming and day laborer. LWF Myanmar arrived in that village in 2009 and started working with the community for the rehabilitation and village development processes after the Cyclone Nargis hit in 2008.
As the village is located in the Delta area, there is no forest around the village. Timely, firewood requirement for each family is turning as a challenge so that LWF Myanmar introduced energy saving stove making training under the project activities of Disaster Risk Reduction and Environmental Conservation for the hosted community in 2015. The participants were selected by the Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) Sub-Committee. In the total of (32) participants (Male 14, Female 18) from (16) villages were benefited from the training. The training was designed for two days and effectively provided for both practical and technical. Benefits of the training were more visible in the following years.
One of the training participants, Kyaw Kyaw Oo shared his experiences “In 2015, I attended the concrete stove making training which was organized by LWF Myanmar with the purposes of reducing the production of firewood and the environmental conservation processes. After the training, I shared my knowledge to the young people in the village who were interested in it. And they also learned actively.”
Energy Saving Stove making training is not only helpful for energy reducing, but also encourage in improving job opportunities for the host communities. LWF Myanmar supported for one set of hand tools and molt for each participant after the training. On the other hand, it does not require large amount of capital fund for starting their owned business.
Kyaw Kyaw Oo got very well on the knowledge of the advantages of using energy saving stove and able to run as his own business within village by selling the stoves.
He continued, “As we could sell the concrete stoves for business, many young people did not need to migrate to other regions. I could distribute one stove for 5500 MMK (4.7 USD) and benefitted for 2500 MMK (2.1 USD). Now we could avoid from migration. So far, more than 200 stoves had been sold out. We all understand now that it can solve not only firewood requirement, but also conserve to the environmental and forestry. Personally, I would like to express special thanks to LWF Myanmar for supporting such valuable knowledge for us.”
