Mbale's Innovation Hub for Clean Stove Development

After working with over 60 villages in Uganda for the past 10 years, we are taking the first steps to build Mbale’s Innovation Hub, The MAPLE House! All around the world, many cities have Innovation Hubs, which are physical spaces where people, entrepreneurs, designers, and researchers co-design and collaborate to generate solutions for their local community.  Few are located in rural areas and small towns.  85% of the 45 million Ugandans live in rural areas and small towns, and 50% of the population are 15 years of age or younger.  Young people leave their villages to go to Kampala, where they face nearly 70% unemployment.  Rural areas, where people maintain their close connections to nature and land, need innovation hubs.    

A view of the mountains from Mbale

The MAPLE House will be the first innovation center for young women and men in the Mt. Elgon region of Uganda, one of the lowest per capita income regions in Uganda, yet a vibrant, mountainous, ecological zone with very entrepreneurial, resilient communities.  The Maple House will work to develop solutions that can address the unique economic, social, and environmental issues of Mbale, Uganda and the Mt. Elgon Region. 

The goals of The MAPLE  House are to:

1. Bring experts and youth together to create new innovative ideas

2. Develop networks that encourage interactions and collaboration

3. Facilitate entrepreneurship to commercialize designs and services, ultimately creating gainful employment

4. Improve the quality of life in Mbale by investing in economic, cultural, and social amenities

5. Preserve the natural environment of the Mt. Elgon region while providing a model for similar ecological zones

STOVE INNOVATION

Many villages in the Mbale region currently purify water by boiling large pots over open wood fires, causing devastating loss of local forests and serious indoor and outdoor air pollution. Our team, including Institutional Energy Systems (IES), BURN Mfg, and hundreds of community members, has co-designed a water pasteurizer and 60-L cookstove.  The stove includes a pasteurization-based system that burns very small amounts of biomass to operate, produces about 400L of water per hour, and has been tested and proven for safety. The stove and pasteurizer have proven to reduce wood and charcoal consumption up to 95% and can dramatically increase local capacity to clean water and cook food while preserving the biodiversity of the region.  Early success with this project will provide the groundwork to attract additional experts, teachers, regional partners, and youth to expand their innovations.  

Common wood  use 

IES stove wood  use

WORKING WITH YOUTH

The Maple House Innovation Hub will focus its pilot programs on assembling and distributing this stove, and will work with rural youth (ages 18-28) who have not had access to formal higher education. Youth members will learn about regional ecology, water issues, hands-on engineering, manufacturing, and distribution of clean stoves, as well as how to engage with villagers about their local knowledge and needs.  These youth will design solutions that have the potential to generate income to support their own livelihoods in ways that also support the values and health of communities, access to clean water, and the ecology of the region.  

Young women in Mbale, Uganda, excited about opportunities of livelihood development to help their communities.

CREATIVE CAPACITY BUILDING

In addition to hands-on engineering experience, the Innovation Center Members will receive an extensive education about methods for innovative design, based on Creative-Capacity Building developed with the MIT D-Lab in collaboration with local experts around the world.  The Creative-Capacity Building methodology is used to empower youth who may lack access to formal types of education, with the goal to design and develop value-adding technologies and services that generate income for the designer. Reciprocally, this program will empower development specialists to gain wisdom about local cultures and approaches to social and ecological resilience that can help us live more sustainable lives in our own neighborhoods.

To get this powerful project rolling, we need your help! We need to raise $10,000 for the materials and expertise that this project requires. 

Our start-up costs consist of:

Pilot Stoves & Pasteurizer = $1,000

Rent of Innovation Center x 3 Months = $500 

Selection and Training of Youth Engineers x 3 months = $1,000 

Tools for Stove Assemblage = $5,000

Curriculum Building, Teaching, Marketing Time x 3 months = $1,800

Transportation= $700

Total Costs = $10,000

This is just the start!

After a successful pilot season, we will have the tools to secure funding and resources to continue building this economically, socially, and ecologically sustainable project. 

Thank you so much for reading our story, and contributing your support to this life-changing cause! 

Learn more at http://maplemicrodevelopment.org/ and www.iesstoves.org.