Building software to continue briquette production through pandemic

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Hello Wren members! This month, we received a letter from Peter Nyeko, the project lead behind Clean Cooking Fuel for Refugees. We're going to let him do the talking for this update:

"Sunrise greetings from Uganda! I trust all is well with you and the team. Here we are just beginning to see the curve of COVID-19 infections rise. We may see a resumption of the lockdown to contain the rapidly rising numbers.

At Clean Cooking Fuel for Refugees, we are glad to have found a way to make things work, despite the tough conditions: We are setting up two digital applications to enable us to proceed with our work. Here's what the apps will do:

  • Manage the sales of briquettes and stoves, as well as the purchase of biochar from farmers, reducing the need for face-to-face interaction.
  • Provide real-time data and updates to Wren on purchases and the number of briquettes being produced.
  • Guide our internal operations as we gradually automate our production lines.

We're hopeful that the briquette factory, which has not been running since the COVID-19 lockdown, will resume operations in a matter of weeks."

-Peter Nyeko

The production facility in Kampala. The new mobile applications will help reduce the number of people required to operate the machines in-person during COVID-19.

Thanks again for supporting this project—these sorts of adaptations can only happen thanks to supporters like you, taking the climate crisis into you own hands.🧡