Lift Up Africa

From Solar Cooking

In 2004, friends Bill Longbrake, Rick Levy and Sam Muinde formed Lift Up Africa (LUA) to create sustainable development projects leading to independence and community ownership. Our projects are intended to help bridge the gap between abundance and need. LUA works closely with African communities on sustainable development projects that address problems such as disease, hunger, employment, and lack of education; use local labor and materials whenever possible; and concentrate on basic needs such as clean water, health care, reliable and sustainable food sources, education, and employment.

Bill, Rick and Sam have now been joined by new board members Anne Farrell, President Emeritus of The Seattle Foundation where she was President and CEO for 19 years; Larry Donahoo, an engineering and construction project manager with worldwide experience who lives in Nairobi; and Kenneth G. Y. Grant, an ordained minister with more than thirty years of executive leadership experience in for-profit and nonprofit organizations focusing on business development and financial services.

LUA continually reviews proposals for new projects, works cooperatively with international NGOs and US nonprofits that help African people, and explores new directions.

Thus far LUA has supported a number of projects, including several solar projects in arid, deforested rural areas. Our current projects include:

• St. John’s Primary School Commercial Solar Cooking Project, Lokochoggio, Kenya. With donated food from the World Food Program, St. John's Primary School provides breakfast and lunch for up to 1,500 children daily. Meals are cooked on eight fuel-efficient wood burning stoves. Wood is expensive and the area is deforested. If ever solar cooking is needed it is at St. John’s. LUA provided funding to install 3 commercial solar cookers at St. John's. After the post-election violence subsided Altener Solar Ltd. was able to transport the commercial cookers to Loki and install them at St. John's Primary School.
  
  
• Kaliluni Medical Centre (KMC), Kaliluni, Kenya. LUA is partnering with the Kaliluni Community to build the Kaliluni Medical Center, a complex that includes a hospital, visiting doctors/nurses quarters, and a funeral home. Once construction has been completed, the local community will manage all aspects of functional operations. KMC is now working with Solar Cookers International to organize a solar cooking demonstration for the Kaliluni residents and developing funding to install solar panels and commercial solar cookers on the hospital building.
  
  
• Knitting for African Kids. In conjunction with First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue, LUA is working with the church’s GetConnected Ministry (a knitting group) to make sweaters for children attending this primary school in rural Kenya. The first batch of 30 sweaters will be delivered to in June 2008 to children attending Mutumbini Primary School in Kaliluni, Kenya. The knitters plan to knit more sweaters for Mutubini kids, kids attending St. John's Academy in Nairobi's Kibera, and others.
  
  

Some new project directions under consideration include:

• Rural Wind Power. A replicable, small scale rural electrification project using wind to bring electricity for lighting to a small village in Western Kenya near Lake Victoria.
  
  
• Community Gravitational Water Projects. LUA is considering partnering with Leadership Institute of Kenya to support several community-initiated gravitational water projects in arid communities on the north slope of Mt. Kenya.
  
  

[edit] News and recent developments

April 2008: Altener Solar Ltd. was finally able to transport and install the 3 commercial solar cookers it fabricated for St. John's Primary School of Lokichoggio, Kenya. The installation had been delayed because driving from Nairobi, where the cookers were fabricated, to the Loki area was unsafe due Kenya's post-election violence. Funding for this project was provided by Lift Up Africa and was its second Loki solar cooking project directed by Nancy Crooks. During the previous project, local Turkana women were trained to make CooKits--small, portable solar cookers--and use them to cook with the sun. As part of their training, the women students put on a solar cooking demonstration on the playground of St. John's Primary, a local school with more than 1,000 students run by Irish Catholic priests. The Fathers, with donations from World Food Program, provide breakfast and lunch for 1,000 - 1,500 children daily. While at St. John's, Father Tom Laffen took Crooks and others on a tour of the school. During the tour they saw St. John's cooking facilities which consist of 8 wood-burning stoves. Although the Fathers have installed fuel-efficient stoves and frequently visit construction sites to gather discarded wood in an effort to avoid using cut trees, St. John's need for wood to cook the children's food is only slightly diminished. After further discussion with the Fathers, Crook concluded that if ever solar cooking was needed it is at this school. Lift Up Africa was proud to provide Crooks with the funding to turn this need into a reality.

Upcoming for June 2008: The Kaliluni Medical Centre (KMC), a Lift Up Africa project, will be hosting a demonstration of solar cooking for their local community. The KMC project is working with local community leaders bring Solar Cooker International's Stella Odaba to Kaliluni for the demonstration. KMC is also developing funding to install solar panels on the hospital building and commercial solar cookers on the hospital building.

[edit] Contact

Linda Alband, CAO
Lift Up Africa
POB 301206
Portland, Oregon 97294
USA

Toll Free: 1 (888) 8LiftUp (USA only)
Telephone: +1 (503) 408-6838
Fax: +1 (503) 408-5766

info@liftupafrica.org
http://www.liftupafrica.org