Publications

Kenya is estimated to have the fifth largest camel herd in the world, and more than 50,000 households in arid and semi-arid lands directly derive part of their livelihood from camels, through home consumption or commercialisation. SNV Kenya is therefore supporting efforts to create efficiency and market orientation of camel milk in the Isiolo district, and this brochure describes SNVs activities.

Building of a quality bio digester requires good knowledge and skills on the part of the constructor, the mason. Good functioning or performance of a bio digester is associated with the selection of the right size, choosing the right site for construction, selecting the construction materials and appliances to comply with the quality standards, constructing the components with strict adherence to the norms and ensuring effective operation and maintenance activities – most of which are the responsibilities of the mason.

This handbook is designed for the mason, who wants to make a living out of building biogas digesters. For biogas technology to perform well, a guided approach is needed to achieve this; disseminate, build, and sell the technology. We are training masons so that they know how to build a bio-digester and to standardize the bio-digester, so people can use the same sizes criteria.

The objectives of the Training are streamlined in this manual as follows:

• To build technical capacity to groups of artisans/technicians so that they get involved in the construction of biogas plants for their own income generation and faster biogas promotion and dissemination in the country;
• To strength KENDBIP’s capacity for promoting domestic biogas plants in many regions of Kenya;
• The mason is able to train the end user how to operate and maintain the Biogas plant.

The brochure is a compilation of various case studies illustrating the impact of SNV's work in the life of millions of people in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

It portrays the approaches and methods used by SNV to empower local communities, businesses and organisations to break the cycle of poverty by providing them with the tools, knowledge and connections they need to increase their incomes and gain access to basic services.