Zimbabwe

Project Mission:

Our international project connects our members to the Nyadire United Methodist Mission in Northeastern Zimbabwe. This partnership was established in 2015 after one of our members traveled to the community as part of a local Pittsburgh organization, The Nyadire Connection. Since then, our chapter has worked with the community to identify their most pressing needs. The first major challenge that the community faced was safe transit at night. When this project reached completion, with installation finished in September 2017, we again worked with the community to identify their next most pressing need. In the time between our initial visit and today, the Zimbabwean government has cordoned off regions of the country where trees can no longer be cut down in an effort to combat deforestation. This poses a major logistical threat to the Nyadire Primary School, which relies on firewood to cook meals for their students. For this reason, the next critical project for the community is relieving their dependence on firewood. After considering many alternatives, such as LP gas, ethanol gel and solar power, we came to the conclusion that biogas would be the best alternative for the primary school. Over the last trip to Nyadire, in January 2019, we discussed the changes that will be made with the community members that will be impacted by the switch from firewood to biogas. We spent the last year researching and brainstorming considerations (materials, human elements) for the implementation of a biogas system for the primary school to replace the use of firewood and sending proposals to local contractors in Zimbabwe.

Remote implementation started the summer of 2022, and the construction was complete in mid November 2022. Our team travelled to Nyadire in January 2023 to check on operating and maintenance issues. The community was very satisfied with the performance of the project. Currently, our team is working on remote monitoring, and plans to travel in January 2024 to officially close out the project and identify our next project.