ACWECA: Sisters Pay Education Visit to Company that Turns Waste into Resource

The journey of the Sisters under the Association of Consecrated Women in East Africa (ACWECA) to venture into impact investment has commenced with a visit by 3 Congregations in Kenya to Sistema Biobolsa, a social enterprise that helps farmers to turn organic waste into resource.

Sistema Biobolsa seeks to impact climate change, bolster food security and fight poverty deploying technology, training and financing to small farmers.
“At Sistema Biobolsa, every farmer is a prospective client as long as they have waste ranging from chickens, pigs and cows, which we into a resource,” the company’s Communication Manager, Carlette Chepngeno explained to the Sisters.

According to Chepngeno, Sistema Biobolsa supplies farmers with modern bio-gas equipment, among them a high quality digester, that converts organic waste of various types and volumes into renewable clean energy.
“The farmers buy this equipment at a fee payable in instalments and the cost covers installation and training,” she further explained.

The Company’s website summarises the potential of its products as follows: “Sistema Biobolsa allows farmers to transform animal manure into renewable energy and organic fertilizer through a biogas system. We eliminate Green House Gas emissions, protect water sources, displace fossil fuels, wood and chemical fertilizers. We turn small farmers into sustainable and productive businesses. We address poverty, food security and climate change. We reduce dependence on fossil fuels and chemical fertilizers by providing farmers with technology, financing and education.”

Michael Nganga Wambuia in Kiambu, Kenya is one of Sistema Bio’s clients. Formerly a motorcycle taxi (boda boda rider), Michael used part of his savings to purchase a plot of land on which he built his house and created farmland. He bought a digester which he feeds with the waste from his five Friesian cows. He uses the waste from the digester to manure his farmland, while the gas from the digester is used for cooking.

Michael and his family are now growing organically produced food crops, milk and vegetables, selling the excess in a small shop they set up at their home.

Brother Keith Douglass Warner, OFM, of Miller Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University, USA, said he is impressed by the initiatives that promote the dignity of a human person. He acknowledged that those who initiated Sistema Bio have made a great impact to the family of Michael and other clients who partner with the enterprise.
“From this example, it’s clear that social enterprises promote the dignity of the human person,” he said.

“When you hear Miller Centre talking about the social impact of social enterprises, it can sound abstract. But seeing a person who has benefited makes a lot of sense,” Brother Keith said, adding that the human face of the social enterprise, (SE) helps entrepreneurs to stay focussed.

The Miller Centre has partnered with ACWECA to accompany the Sisters in the Region, as they seek to transform their social ministries into social enterprises. Through the project dubbed the “Sisters Blended Value Project, (SBVP),” ACWECA has brought on board eleven (11) Congregations to venture into Impact Investment.

Before taking on the initiative, Miller Centre identified 6 social enterprises each in Kenya and Uganda for the sisters to visit. The learning visits which took place in January were meant to help Sisters get first-hand information from existing social enterprises and learn from their experience.

In Kenya, the 3 participating congregations are the Assumption Sisters of Eldoret, Missionary Benedictine Sisters and Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus. In Uganda, it is the Daughters of St. Theresa, Our Lady of the Good Counsel, Immaculate Heart of Mary Reparatrix and the Missionary Sisters of Mary Mother of the Church.

Four other countries, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe have one Congregation each participating in the SBVP. The four participating Congregations include Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Little Sisters of St. Francis, Religious Sisters of the Holy Spirit, and Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood.

The learning visit for these countries was scheduled to Livelihoods, a social enterprise that creates employment for youth and women in Kenyan slums early March. The visit coincided with a 3 days start-up workshop for all the 7 Congregations participating in (SBVP), which ran from March, 3rd to 8th, 2019 at ACWECA Secretariat in Nairobi, Kenya.

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By Sr. Grace Candiru, MSMMC; ACWECA Communication Coordinator