First Biodigester Unit at Work in Susiya

Following the success of the Villages Group’s first environmental initiative – the renewable energy project, which has been now running independently for about a year under the banner Comet-ME – the Villages Group is now launching a second environmental initiative: Biodigester units for shepherd families’ use. These systems turn the family herd’s manure into bio-gas for the family’s cooking needs.

As mentioned in our previous post,  a month ago a team led by Yair Teller installed the first Biodigester unit at the residence of the family of  Ismail Nawageh in Susiya.  After a few weeks’ incubation period the manure in the Biodigester is by now producing enough gas, so yesterday it was connected to the Ismail family kitchen for regular use.

In the meanwhile, we also received the encouraging news, that the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies decided to adopt Yair’s project, and will send its Palestinian, Israeli and International students to help Yair in the installation of more Bidigester units in Susiya and elsewhere in the south Mt. Hebron region.

Strengthening Those Who Belong to the Land: Mahmud from Susya, the Organic Farmer

Mahmud from Susya got up one day from his depression, and built a very basic green house. With simple tools and techniques he succeeded to surprise us with excellent organic vegetables.

The vegetables are an essential addition to the family’s poor diet, based mainly on dairy products from the herd which is their main source of making a living. And while both herding and growing grains is restricted by the settlers/army, green-housing is a brilliant solution for growing food which does not require much land.

One day Mahmud discovered a vegetable disease on the leaves of his tomatoes. We could not help with the disease, but by suggested to finance for him an agricultural course. When he returned from his two months’ course at al-Arroub College north of Hebron, he also built a beehive.

Then, he turned out to be also a guide for Ahmad, from another family in Susiya. He taught him and helped him to build his own green house.

Meanwhile, since this area is a draught area, both by nature and by the Occupation (the regime prevents direct water supply), we supported 4 families in building 4 wells.

Recently we joined the building the first prototype home Bio-Gas system. The system was built by Yair Teller from the Arava Institute with our financial support. This system, the first one of its kind to operate in the Middle East, turns animals’ feces into gas for cooking needs. The previous success of the solar and wind based electricity systems which we, with COMET-ME, first built in Susiya two years ago, has motivated us to build this first prototype in Susiya as well.

All the above are actual examples of our way of supporting – strengthening the strengtheners of each community, both personally and communally.

We offer many aspects of support; even when financial, it is always a result of personal contacts and long standing relationships. In addition to Susya, we also maintain contacts with other communities in the region of south mount Hebron  such as Umm Fakara, Umm al-Kheir, al-Tuwani, Tuba and others.

The financial support for all the initiatives described above (in Susiya), was kindly provided by a family from London. We, members of the Villages Group and Susyans, thank them sincerely.

Wind Turbine Workshop at TAEQ

Yesterday (Thursday the 28th of August) we have finished a five day practical course on small wind turbine construction. The workshop was attended by 9 participants from various communities across the west bank and was hosted by TAEQ (Towns Association for Environmental Quality in the Lower Galilee region). The participants learned about the basic design principles of small scale wind turbines and then built, with their own hands, a fully functional 1kW wind turbine. Although, due to time limitations, the turbine still needs some finishing work, once it will be done the turbine will be installed, together with another one we assembled from a kit, in Susya where they will serve the community in powering refrigerators for storing and selling the milk and diary products produced in the region.

Although there were a few things we were unhappy with (naturally for a workshop running for the first time) in the course of the workshop we think it was, all in all, a success. The students were determined to make the best out of their stay in Sakhnin, were eager to learn and gained confidence in their ability to actually construct a wind turbine, combined with an understanding of the difficulties and complications involved. Many new contacts were made during the workshop between us and the students and among the students. We came out even more confident in the direction we have chosen and are already hatching up several new ideas (of which we will update once they reach maturity). We hope the participants enjoyed it as much as we did and are confident we will keep in touch and do things together.

Thanks to: Lina, Muhamad, Hamdan, Yehye, Waseem, Jalal, Alaa, Ahmad, Abed, Hannan and Hanadi.

Yours,

Noam and Elad.

The gang enjoying the fruit of their labour...

Sixteen Family Solar-Power Units Installed in Susya Region

— This message from Noam — embedded pictures soon to follow … meanwhile you can watch the slide show put together by Eduardo Soteras who was there and took pictures

Assaf

—————————–

We are very pleased to inform you that all the installations of the first stage of the project in Susya are completed successfully.

We have worked from Tuesday to Friday, to deliver and install 16 Solar systems to families in Susya.

All the systems are tested and functional. We still need to deliver some missing lamps. This will be carried out this week.

Thanks to all of you who made this dream come true for the families of Susya.

We are looking forward to accomplish the next steps of the project.

Bye.

Noam Dotan