GIFSEP in Conjunction with ESLF Train 50 Women, Youth in Makurdi

By Our Reporter

Global Initiative for Food Security and Ecosystem Preservation (GIFSEP) has trained 50 women and youth on production of Bio-Mass Briquttes.

The training was organised by GIFSEP in conjunction with Eunice Spring of Life Foundation (ESLF) on Friday at Ugondo Community in Makurdi.

The Executive Director, GIFSEP, Mr David Terungwa, said that bio-mass briquttes was aimed at curtailing indiscriminate falling of trees for charcoal purposes.

Terungwa further stated that the bio-mass briquttes could even be used for a longer period as compared to charcoal.

He said that its production required only little efforts and the process was less tedious.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director, Break Free from Plastics Awareness Initiative, Mr Ibrahim Shamsudeen and Mr Andy Kene, said that the bio-mass could be produced using rice chaffs, sawdust, leaves, cassava peels, coconut and palm kernel shelves.

The duo said that the items listed above are usually burnt until they turn into powdered form then it would be mixed with starch and moulded either with a machine or manually using hands or tins of peak milk.

"After that they are dried on the sun and once it is dried it could be used for cooking.

"It does not produce smoke thereby leaving the back of the pots clean," they said.

The Program Manager, ESLF, Mr Tine Agernor, advised the participants to pay rapt attention to all that they would be taught.

Agernor added that they would surely have a lot to learn, stressing that the benefit of the training was enormous.

Earlier, the District Head of Ugondo, Chief Justin Ihwakaa who was represented by the Kindred Head of Mbaakuva, Chief Solomon Ahingir, said that the participants were carefully selected based on their commitment and dedication to responsibilities assigned to them previously.

Ihwakaa assured GIFSEP and ESLF that their efforts would not go in vein, promising that they would surely put the knowledge that they would acquire into practice for the overall good of the society.

Mr Jerry Akya, who is the Principal, Apir Community Secondary School, Apir, corroborated Ihwakaa that the efforts of the nongovernmental organisations would not go in vein, adding that they would support their people to make good use of the knowledge gained during the training.

Across section of the participants disclosed that the awareness and training had made them to know that indiscriminate falling of trees was unfavourable to the climate thereby endangering their lives.

They promised that they would desist from the practice of falling trees for charcoal now that a better means of cooking energy had been discovered.