Compost Idea

The West Africa PC Volunteer Conference, also known as AllVol, has pulled together all of the volunteers from Senegal and Gambia. Returning to the Thies Training Center, which is where I spent half of my first 2 training months, is incredibly comforting. It feels like summer camp with my beloved stagemates within those walls. The purpose of AllVol is to share the best practices from the field (ideas, success, “lessons learned”). I went with my fingers crossed for inspiration (or at least to stay awake through the presentations).

The first presentation I attended, Waste Management, was a surprisingly valuable session led by a third year SED volunteer. I now intend to analyze my village, organized groups, and appropriate objectives. He spoke on waste management facilities in larger cities, but Im interested in making this project appropriate for a village of less than 500 residents. The major active organizations include the Women’s group, school children, and select motivated workers. The appropriate objective is to assess and create a plan for the control of organic waste via compost, and plastics by collection.

My village, Saare Meta, is small and not appropriate for a full on waste facility, so requires minimal input outside of village cooperation and donated food scraps. I would like a fenced concrete structure to collect compost that could be funded by an NGO or grant. I would also like the village to contribute a percentage to accredit the plan. I need to research the possibility of similar systems currently underway, but I don’t know of any nearby villages that are familiar with compost. For this idea to succeed, I realize that convincing people that compost is useful and beneficial is going to be an important beginning step. A MiricleGro-like comparison to show plant productivity with and without compost could be supportive, but may take too long to produce results. Regardless, I will prepare comparison plants with my personal compost. The secondary benefits of transforming the village waste to fertile material extends to a possible income source, increased garden productivity, and environmental education. The women’s group could use the compost in their gardens and with the trees that I plan on introducing. If the compost levels became sufficient, it could be sold to interested farmers or neighboring villages. Benefit distribution would depend on participant envolvment. I think that the initiative would also reach the kids because the adults heavily rely on them for housework. They could be involved in school programs and scheduled clean-up efforts in order to expose them to more environmentally friendly behavior. I don’t think that this idea requires a stiff business plan because it can be implemented without regular funding.

In a brief conclusion, I have an idea and a lot of backup work to do to see if it is feasible.