Our colleagues from the metal workshop have built a folding bench from scrap metal.
It can be used to bend metal sheets up to 50 cm long – e.g. for the construction of pyrolysis ovens. These require very little firewood and produce charcoal.
The tool weighs 23 kg and can be dismantled.
The folding bench is designed so that it can be rebuilt without any problems.
At the invitation of Swedish aid organizations, Ghebrbrhan Iyassu, Chairman of the Eritrean War Disabled Persons Association (EWDVA), is on a tour of Europe. We met him on April 26 in Stuttgart together with the board of the Association of Eritrean Physically Disabled People Stuttgart e.V..
We talked about the use of our donations in Eritrea – which we have been sending to the association for many years – and discussed how we could provide more targeted support through our fundraising activities. It was agreed that Arbeit und Dritte Welt would receive a report from EWDVA at least once a year on the use of the donations.
The association also wants to let us know which donated items could be helpful in addition to the previous collections of bicycles, pedal sewing machines, wheelchairs and walking sticks. In EWDVA’s view, it is necessary to support or create further employment opportunities so that income can be generated and training can be supported.
Dear Mr. Brien, dear team of Arbeit und Dritte Welt e. V.,
We would like to thank you very much. “We”, that is all of us who have been involved in the Togo project: Our partners from ADICH in Togo, LHL in Germany and me, Chantal Kloecker, as coordinator of the Togo project.
I was in Atakpamé/Togo for 2 weeks in February and was really pleased when the many tools you sent us arrived in the capital Lomé. Even though the customs officers in Togo are very greedy for “grease” money, everything went well!
The box was opened at customs because the officials wanted to be sure that all the tools had already been used. Then the box was put in a cab and transported from Lomé to Atakapmé (160 km).
Finally, the box was delivered to Alexis Yawou, chairman of Adich.
The three of us then unpacked all the tools, admired them and packed them up again.
Grégoire, the metalworker, was particularly impressed and actually speechless: he would never have dreamed of so many great tools!
He asked me to express his gratitude.
Faustin and Grégoire helped me check that everything was in order.
Everything was carefully packed up again. The next day I visited Grégoire in his workshop: it is located on the edge of the road from Lomé to Burkina Faso, at the southern entrance to Atakpamé.
Grégoire is a “soudeur” (= solderer), he and his apprentices make ironware that is sturdy and practical. (with the crosses: these are molds used to make building components for houses from clay. Instead of windows, openings are made in the walls to allow pleasant ventilation). Grégoire also makes charcoal ovens, grates and charcoal spoons.
Grégoire has few tools at his disposal:
Nevertheless, Grégoire and his apprentices can achieve amazing results! For example, Grégoire can carefully and precisely reproduce a pyrolytic stove from Mr. Fetzner within 4 days:
This is one reason why we think it’s worth helping people like this!
Not far from Grégoire’s workshop is the “Forge” (forge). Young blacksmiths work there who are skilled but receive little money for their services.
No comment!… Who would work under these conditions here in Germany? I forgot to mention that the outside temperature was 35° (it’s the dry season in Togo in February!). I forgot to mention (and photograph!) that I brought new tools with me: a cordless drill, a cordless grinder… All the tools, whether used or new, will make Grégoire’s and the metalworker’s work easier and open up new prospects for them. Our project is very much focused on vocational training for young people.
By the end of March 2015, 10 young men will be initiated into the metalworking trade during a seminar in Atakpamé. Adich is currently recruiting 10 young men from 10 villages who combine skill and moral principles. Grégoire will train them, they will make pyrolysis stoves and sell them as part of our Elagnon project.
In July, we will travel to Atakpamé/Togo with 5 young students and Mr. Fetzner (pyrolysis stove specialist) to carry out our project there.
So, it goes on!…
Chantal Kloecker
Coordinator of the Togo project at www.L-H-l.org
We have already carried out several donation transports for the association Lernen-Helfen-Leben (L-H-L) – to Nigeria and Chad.
L-H-L has been supporting the ADICH organization in Togo for many years. The “Association pour le Développement Intégral de la Communauté Houdou” ADICH has been a partner in Atakpamé since the start of the project in 2009. This association is recognized by the state of Togo and consists of members from the Houdou community. This group numbers around 12,000 people who live in 21 villages in the south of Atakpamé. ADICH has been in existence for over 20 years and has already implemented several projects in the medical, sanitary and educational fields.
At the request of Ms. Chantal Kloecker, L-H-L’s coordinator for supporting ADICH’s activities, we put together a set of refurbished high-quality tools for a blacksmith’s workshop and organized the transport by air freight from Frankfurt to Lome. There, the tools were received by Ms. Kloecker.
The blacksmiths now have considerably improved possibilities for producing energy-saving stoves.
After we sent three 40′ containers with bicycles, wheelchairs, pedal sewing machines and tools to the war-disabled association last year, financed by a transportation grant from Engagement Global, we have now received the following letter from the chairman, Ghebrebrehan Iyassu:
In December 2014, we loaded a 40′ container to Banjul / The Gambia for the Dresden-Banjul Organization (DBO).
In addition to school furniture, bicycles and tiles, the container contained a complete machine park plus tools for a carpentry workshop.
We had dismantled and disassembled the heavy machinery in an abandoned carpentry workshop in Dresden-Radebeuel and transported it to Hildesheim. We then refurbished and packed them there.
This is the second training workshop that Heinz Bormann, head of DBO in The Gambia, has set up. Training is already underway in the truck workshop that was completed last year.
For the first time, colleagues from the Sehnde branch of the DGB organized a donation collection in Hohenhameln – and it was very successful! We had to hire a 7.5-ton truck to transport the many donations.
A group led by BWV social worker Gerald Roß and organized by the Mietertreff of the Beamtenwohnungsverein Hildesheim visited us again.
We were able to present our association’s work as part of a tour of the facility – a cozy barbecue in the garden rounded off the visit.
Once again, we were able to load a container with donations for the work of the Dresden-Banjul organization in The Gambia.
In addition to donated school furniture from the district of Celle, this time it included workshop equipment for setting up a truck workshop. In addition, with the support of the Hildesheim-based company Butterbrodt, a batch of heavy-duty floor tiles for the workshop.
