PRESS RELEASE - NOVEMBER 2004

HELP International and the South East Regional College

Subject: Official Launch of The Zero Waste Technologies Innovation Competition

HELP International and South East Regional College are celebrating the inauguration of a Research and Development Partnership on Monday, November 01, 2004.

The development of this partnership began as a result of the need for improved simple low cost appropriate zero waste technologies for HELP’s zero waste community management initiative. These technologies are for use in the home front industries to produce new products from wastes.

1) We consider this the official launch of a Research and Development Partnership between HELP and South East Regional College.

2) The first phase of this partnership is the launching of a Technology Innovation Competition.

3) The Technology Innovation Competition is the first exercise (to be duplicated in future years) of a larger research and development partnership to follow.  

4) What is unusual about this first R and D 'Technology Innovation' competition is the critical needs that technology solutions will immediately solve in two nationwide HELP-led projects ongoing in Kenya. 

5) The projects are the Zero Waste Community Management Project and its partner project: Women Led National Forestation using Family Sector Agro-Enterprise. The project uses schools across the country (Kenya) as a development agent producing free fruit and woody tree seedlings for their moms' farms.

6) The project technologies being developed (low tech paper mills, fibre board presses, and plastic post makers) act directly to arrest deforestation by creating wood replacement items by recycling paper to create new products or using plastic to create replacement timber products such as plastic posts and plastic bricks.

7) It should be of interest to note that the fibre board made from recycled paper and recycled cloth, has just won a reward at two levels of a competition for innovation in recycling. The product now goes to a third level competition in Nairobi, Kenya. Again, the consumers suggested the fibre board be made larger (up to 4 x 8 feet) so that it can have wider applications in the construction industry. This is precisely what The South East Regional College is taking on as one of the three Zero Waste Project technology advances it is working on.  

8) The three R and D Technology Challenges the College is taking on with HELP include:

a) Creation of a Fibre Board Press and Frame which can increase the current 24 x 24 inch fiber board being produced by the HELP Zero Waste project to a 4 x 8 foot fibre board. The new board will be much larger and therefore have more applications in the construction industry.  Also, due to hydraulic compression of circa 50 lb per sq. inch the new fibre boards will dry much faster than the current five days, and will be much stronger due to the compression system.

 

b) Modification of HELP's Zero Waste Project's manual and bicycle driven paper mill prototypes which are not yet operational. This will also include the creation of a motorized version (circa 1 hp) of the manual paper mills. These are utilized for creating pulp from waste paper for the creation of the fiber board and for the creation of hand made paper. 

 

c) Creation of a Plastic Post Manufacturing Unit that utilizes a metal pipe mold, semi-molten heating system, and hydraulic compression to push the semi molten plastic into the pipe mold.  Air compression from a normal air compressor tire valve unit pushes the plastic post out of the pipe mold after cooling in a water vat.

9) The emphasis is on profoundly low cost and low tech. The technologies must be affordable to groups of ten women-led Home Associations in Kenya whose individual household incomes average $30 to $100 per month.

10) The technologies are part of some twenty technologies being introduced by the Zero Waste Project beginning in the slums of Kenya' s largest cities. The technologies create the possibility of arresting an environmental emergency of waste management breakdown, rivers laden with sewer wastes and household garbage.

The  innovations allow each group of ten-house Home Associations to segregate their wastes into nine types: toilet wastes, food wastes, paper, plastic, cloth, metal, charcoal dust, ash, and tree/vegetable seeds.  The innovation technologies will provide the means by which each type of waste is manufactured into new products.

So, at the same time as the community environs and river is cleaned of all imaginable types of wastes, the segregated wastes create a multitude of new industries:

a) bio-gas from toilet wastes (prototype planned for later this year)

c) compost soil from toilet and food wastes (ongoing)  

d) seeds for HELP's national free tree seedling and forestation program (ongoing) 

e) paper for fiber board and hand made paper industries (on going)

f) cooking briquettes from charcoal waste, waste paper and earth (on going)  

g) plastic lumber from plastic wastes (Prototype stage only...successful demos)

h) fingerling tree bag industry and tree mulch from waste plastic (ongoing)

i) soil conditioner industry from waste styrofoam and waste sponge (currently starting)

11) Donor Recognition

a) Donors for the Zero Waste Project in Kenya and its counterpart Public Engagement Programming in Canada include: The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Saskatchewan council for International Cooperation (SCIC), and 10 Saskatchewan Schools.

 

b) HELP is providing $5,000.00 for material and cash scholarship awards to the College students winning Technology Innovation Teams.

 

c) Other important material contributions to assist with R & D come from:

    - Mryglod Steel and Metal Inc.: $1,500.00

    - Stewart Steel: $2,000.00

Official Launch date: Monday, November 01, 2004

Time: 3:30 pm

Location: HELP International’s Ecological and International Development Theme Park, Weyburn

Contact: Kabuya Muepu, HELP International. Trent Jordens: Weyburn South East Regional College

News Release

SaskPower - 423

SASKPOWER & HELP INTERNATIONAL PARTNER FOR ENVIRONMENT

"SaskPower strives to achieve a balance between providing safe, reliable, cost-effective power, and protecting the environment," Minister responsible for SaskPower Frank Quennell said. "The SaskPower Shand Greenhouse provides the corporation with a unique opportunity to partner with environmental organizations like HELP International to find solutions to environmental challenges."

HELP International's Carbon Sequestration and Phytoremediation Project involves the planting of high water use trees around landfills and sewage lagoons in urban communities to decontaminate soils and waters before they reach rivers and underground aquifers. Communities participating in this project include Weyburn, Arcola, Stoughton and Radville.

• The Souris River and Farm Protection Program, which resulted in the planting of 265,000 trees along the Souris River and Long Creek Watersheds to assist in the protection of natural habitat, enhance water quality and control soil erosion. Forty per cent of the trees used for this project were donated by the SaskPower Shand Greenhouse.
• The Zero Waste Program for Schools, which brings students from schools across the province to day camps at the International Development Theme Park near Weyburn, where they learn about a zero waste lifestyle and participate in tree planting for HELP International's environmental projects.

Minister responsible for SaskPower, Frank Quennell, hands in the cheque to HELP International's Executive Director, Rodney Sidloski.

      

 

 

 

 

 

University of Saskatchewan Students are organizing a book collection drive to collect books and computers from U of S students and faculty. The collected items will be donated to HELP International who will ship them to Kenya as part of HELP's Books and Computers for Africa project. The project assists in setting up schools and community libraries in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. This books collection drive is being led by Berverly Wudel, a student in the College of Pharmacy & Nutrition at the U. of S. The books will be shipped to HELP's Weyburn office by Jays' Moving who have been very generous delivering books to Weyburn from as far as Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan.

 

 

 

 

 

HELP International welcomes four Katimavik volunteers

 

 

The four volunteers are Trevor Dumont, Elizabeth Avingaq, Eve Boulay, and Kira Larsen.

 

The volunteers will be assisting in various capacities. They will be attached to various projects that HELP international is running. Currently, they are working on the books and computers for Africa project. They are helping with sorting out and arranging books that are donated to the project for shipment to Africa. The books are part of HELP International’s effort to establish more community and school libraries in the slums of Nairobi Kenya.

The four volunteers are very enthusiastic and they demonstrate an unprecedented level of responsibility and commitment. HELP International is very grateful to have these young people here.

To find out more about Katimavik, please visit their website at www.katimavik.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 04, 2004 edition of Weyburn This Week

 

 

HELP International representative Kabuya Muepu and S.E. Regional College representative Trent Jordens and the college’s welding class accept the challenge of inventing a new hydraulic press system for fibre board manufacturing.

— Photo by Bob Heath 

South East Regional College’s Trent Jordens, along with HELP International’s Kabuya Muepu, have started a partnership that will be felt around the world.

S.E. College welding students have been challenged to come up with a better hydraulic press system to assist with filter board presses. The current presses are the weight of the operator pressing down on a slurry of recycled newspaper, water and cloth strips. The size of boards are limited due to the human factor but with a hydraulic press system the dimensions can be increased dramatically. Kabuya told the gathering that the fibre board has just won an award for innovation in recycling in Nairobi, Kenya. HELP International would like to see the fibre boards increased to four by eight foot sheets. This would give a better application in the construction industry. Mr. Jordens of the S.E. College said, “This is why we’re taking on this project.” Jordens went on to say that this partnership with HELP is a great model of how local training and education not only impacts our local area but globally as well. This will be a great experience for our students which allows freedom of creativity, ingenuity and internal motivation. HELP International currently is making two inch square fibre boards which take up to five days to finish but they are counting on the local college students to reduce the curing time and increase the dimensions at the same time.The students will also be creating a new motor-driven papermill which will create a paper/pulp slurry for the recycled pulp/fibre board process. The emphasis is on low cost and low technology which will be used by 10 women-led home associations in Kenya whose individual household incomes range from $30 to $100 per month. The Zero Waste Project is beginning in the slums of Kenya’s largest cities due to the large amount of sewer wastes and household garbage entering their rivers. Waste management is becoming a top priority in Kenya and with Weyburn’s assistance this project will help reduce pollution around the world. The projects will be unveiled in January 2005 at the SouthEast Community College.