Proud to be a Stove Guy

My name is Evens Jean Baptiste and I am an economist and actor by trade.  Before the earthquake I worked in my community but I didn't have the opportunity to live and to understand the situation of the poorest people.  

Evans and ILF Director of Program Development Hoi Trinh

with one of the stove monitors in Issa Tabar Camp

Right after the earthquake I began working with ILF on May 1st, 2010.  The ILF project has changed my attitude, my mind and my life and I have had the chance to meet some incredible people like Vahid J.  VJ taught me first and some other fantastic guys along the way, including my country director Elizabeth Sipple, Calito, all the monitors, Mr D. Wolf, Debora, Moushine, Sebastian, Sam, James, Brian, Jody R, Landers, Becky and Esther.  Big thanks to all of you, even if you're in Africa or around the world let's make it together, ILF forever.

VJ demonstrating how to use an institutional stove 

This project has changed my life because I finally understand that the most important thing in life isn't money but Nature.  We go everywhere in Haiti and talk to the people about life and nature and give them at least one STOVE because with a fuel-efficient stove the poorest people can save at least 50% on expensive fuel, like charcoal or wood.  Because if a family spends $2 to cook a meal, now they spend less than $1 with the STOVE.  

Cooking demonstration at the ILF office

We can give a better life to the Haitian people and right now that is one of the most important things in my life.  Instead of being an economist or an actor I'm proud because I'm a STOVE guy; I can be nearer to my Haitian people and I can build a stove and give my little boy a chance to have a better life. 

Evans and other members of the Haiti and Washington teams at

the UNDP briquette factory in Port-au-Prince 

Evens Jean Baptiste

Procurement Officer 

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Lifeline in Forbes

The Forbes Corporate Social Responsibility blog highlights ILF's work in Haiti:

http://blogs.forbes.com/csr/2010/12/13/cleaner-cookstoves-for-christmas/

Give a clean cook stove for Christmas by donating now at http://www.lifelinefund.org/

An Update From Kenya

My name is Abdi Ma’alim. I’m quite new to ILF, I only joined this project here in Hagadera camp in January 2010.  I’m 27 years old, and fled Somalia with my parents when I was just 7 years old. So I have pretty much grown up in this camp.  I’m a stove monitor for ILF.  I go out into the household blocks and do assessments of who needs a stove. We would like to give them to everyone, but we do not have enough! After identifying our beneficiaries, I invite them to our shed on a specific date. When they come there we train them on how to use the stove in the right way so as to maximize its efficiency. We then give them the stove.

I also do follow-up monitoring, to see if our stove is being used right and to gather feedback from the beneficiaries.  I also try to do awareness creation, making my fellow refugees understand the benefits of using a fuel efficient stove (like our rocket stove) compared to cooking on an open fire which is culturally what we are used to.  I’m quite glad to be a part of this project and I like my job a lot!

Abdi Ma’alim
Stove Monitor
Dadaab, Kenya

"Keep Your Stick On Ice" - Initial Perceptions of Haiti from Lifeline's Newest Team Member

My first two weeks in Haiti have been informative and compelling. The people are beautiful and the language is both familiar and distant: the familiar romance of French intertwined and sharply contrasted by the distant rhythms of Africa. Haiti seems to be a country like many equatorial countries: full of contradictions. And with the elections approaching those contradictions are even more evident.  Almost daily Port-au-Prince experiences, what Haitians refer to as “manifestations” These come in many forms:
political rallies, clashes with the police, and often-violent clashes with the U.N. military.  This polyrhythmic city is restless and frustration grows.

Yet outside the city, in sharp contrast to the smog and pancaked structures of Port-au-Prince lies the immense beauty of nature.  Haiti is a mountainous country that is at times reminiscent of tropical Asia, at other times of equatorial Africa, and yet others, the deserts of Mexico. I am consumed by the smoldering question of what landscape in this tiny country looked like at birth.  By first impression it was desert. Yet a voice brought forth from the inner most soul of this varying landscape speaks of great forests of trees, immense and huge. Dense forest canopies coupled with colorful creatures and competitive undergrowth whisper from the soil. This is what speaks to me, the old souls of long-felled trees. The deforestation that has taken place is far reaching here. I wonder if something can be done to reverse the tide; to hold onto what is left and replace what is gone. ILF is one small organization that can contribute to this battle. And I hope my time here will be rooted in this changing tide.

Brian Martin
Environmental Program Consultant
Haiti

A Community Meeting in Omito Parish, Uganda

After a fifteen minute drive through rural farmland, the dirt roads narrowing at every turn - as if the natural landscape is willfully reasserting itself in advance of our 4x4 pick-up - we arrive at our destination. The homestead of Rose Ojok, Local Council Chairwoman for Omito Parish, is well kept; a series of tidy thatched out-houses offsets their principle residence, a small but welcoming metal-roofed farmhouse, and the open spaces are covered by carefully tended green clover. A good omen, I think.

Women look up from the work of preparing food as our vehicle pulls up and one or two lets out the now-familiar ululation of happiness – we’re welcome here. As the team prepares for the crowd that we hope will soon be arriving, Rose insists that I take a look at the stoves she’s currently preparing lunch on
– two ILF rocket stoves from our previous visit. I duck under the low lintel and enter into the hut, fully prepared to be engulfed in a cloud of smoke – I’ve seen the pictures of the thick smoke from indoor cooking and the reaction is unconscious. Surprisingly, I breath in cool air, and after my eyes adjust, I can see that only a small tendril of smoke is rising from the corner, even though the two stoves are burning at a full roar. I can’t help but smile. You’ve tested these stoves yourself in a lab, so you KNOW they work, I tell myself, but still, seeing is believing – this is the reason you’ve left my home behind for the next year, and it’s a beautiful sight!

Rose cooking with her stove

Rose's stove

Rose is overjoyed with the stoves, but I’ve figured that out even before the translation comes. In the opposite corner of the hut sits an elaborately constructed Lorena Stove – an intervention from some previous NGO. It’s a nice design, and I know it works well in other countries, but it’s clearly not meet Rose’s cooking needs - the proof is quite literally written on the wall. Not a single soot mark to be seen. Well intentioned, I think, but a testament to the complicated world of cook stoves – even a good stove won’t perform well if it doesn’t meet the needs of the targeted culture!

Rose’s niece Jennifer is outside chopping wood, a task I’ve grown familiar with having lived the last year and a half heating with firewood in central Vermont. I stroll over to lend a hand – how different can it be! Quite, is the clear answer of the dull axe as my first blow glances violently off the twisted branch that I’m trying to split. The second connects but gets so deeply imbedded I can’t pull it out. Finally, after much wrangling, I get the hang of it, but after 15 sweaty minutes I’ve still only managed to create a small pile - compared to the swift work of Jennifer, I’m clearly an amateur. My only consolation are the gaping smiles that paint everyone’s face when I look up. Good for a laugh, at least! I think, with a smile.

Jennifer chopping wood

After cooling down I glance at my watch. It’s been about an hour since our arrival. I’m enjoying myself and the setting is idyllic, but a feeling of apprehension is starting to build deep down in my gut. Where’s the rest of the community? It’s a feeling I’ve felt before - as a campaign organizer for the Obama campaign in 2008, I would arrive in advance of every community meeting with one question racing through my head, “will they show up, will they show up”.

One hour becomes two, and the nervous glances at my watch grow more frequent. All of this planning and nothing to show for it! The list of questions starts growing in my mind - maybe we’ve chosen a bad location, maybe we’ve chosen a bad day. Did we post enough fliers? Maybe people just aren’t interested… I’m stopped mid-thought as a young mother appears from the main path, her child bundled tight to her back and fast asleep in his perch. Another arrives, this time an elderly woman whose bare feet tell me that she’s no stranger to walking. Then a man on a bicycle, a well worn grin on his wrinkled face. Two more by foot. After the sixtieth villager, I stop counting and just sit back to enjoy myself. Its going to be just fine.

The community meeting in Omito Parish in action

 One of the children at the community 

meeting with stove bricks before mudding

Trainers of Trainers (ToTs) showing the community how to "mud"
their stoves.  ILF sells or gives the bricks, the base component of
the stoves, to community members and they then "mud" the stoves
themselves to make them fully operational.  

A ToT Trainer 

Three hours later, we pile back into the car. The road seems less wild in leaving than coming, and the voices of the team, talking excitingly behind me in Luo, echo the pleasure of my own thoughts. Over 80 participants! A list of over 180 names submitted to us by Rose, all people who want a stove! The community’s excitement after we announced our plan for a new delivery! 9 newly elected community trainers and dates set for their training. And I thought the community election was going to be a nightmare to organize! A clear date set for our return. We did it!


A hand falls gently on my right shoulder, startling me from my thoughts. “That is ‘African Time’” Patrick says, laughing from the back seat. I turn around, and for the third time that day, I smile.

Nicholas Salmons
Environmental Program Coordinator
Uganda

Fundraising, Lifeline Style

            6:30 had come and gone and I was just returning to Deborah and Dan’s house to change my clothes and go back to the gallery to actually attend the fundraiser I had spent the past six weeks planning.  As I had hurriedly showered, changed clothes, and sucked down a glass of white wine I was truly looking forward to attending the event.  More than the fundraiser, however, I was looking forward to the coming days when I could leave behind the world of caterers, art galleries, and printing costs and focus on writing grant proposal, reading reports from the field, and becoming more involved with Lifeline’s various programs.  Sounds a little crazy right?  Fortunately, I don’t think that I am alone in this sentiment.  Lifeline is made up of a group of people who would rather talk about how long it takes a fuel-efficient stove to boil water and how many boreholes in Uganda need to be visited and repaired than catering menus and event programs. 

           

That being said, there is no us without you.  We wouldn’t be able to sit in our office in DC and celebrate the latest figures from Haiti (our institutional stoves have the capacity to save schools with 1,000+ children $20/day) without the people who support our programs.  300 stoves couldn’t be distributed every month in Dadaab refugee center without those of you who have attend Lifeline’s fundraisers.  4,500 families in urban camps in Haiti wouldn’t have stoves without those of you who have donated.  Nearly 40,000 people in Northern Uganda wouldn’t have access to clean water without those of you have told your friends about the work we’re doing.  There would be no Lifeline without your support and for that we are forever grateful.

            For those of you who were unable to attend, the fundraiser was a blast.  As we joke at the office, we may not be great businessmen (and women), but we know how to throw one hell of a party.  There was dancing, drumming, singing, drinking, eating and what kind of non-profit event would this be without speeches?  We heard from the Department of Energy’s Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs David Sandalow, author of the best-selling book Slave Hunter Aaron Cohen, and of course our founder and the man who makes it all happen, Dan Wolf.  Around 10:00 as the guests trickled out, the wine stopped flowing, and we all hurriedly cleaned up before the gallery kicked us out, we all breathed one large, collective sigh of relief.  Despite the fun we had had, the message we had been able to broadcast, and the money we had raised we were all ready to buckle down and get back to work.  That’s just our style at Lifeline.  But, like I said, there is no us without you, and for those of you who attended this year’s fundraiser or who have been able to donate, we thank you.  

            As the lights were turned off and the last person exited the gallery we unanimously decided that next year in an effort to raise more money and reach out to more people, we would hire a professional event planner.

Rachael Reichenbach

HQ Intern 

Lifeline and Invisible Children Work Together to Improve Access to Clean Water in Uganda

Read Invisible Children's blog post to learn more about the joint initiative between Invisible Children and Lifeline to drill 20 boreholes and provide clean drinking water for 24,000 Ugandans over the next three months.

A Dispatch from Haiti

Port-au-Prince, Haiti
October 29th, 2010

Every Home Needs a Stove – An Improved Stove!

In early February 2010 International Lifeline Fund (ILF) arrived in Haiti to provide emergency relief to victims after the devastating earthquake that struck the island on January 12th 2010.  ILF came to Haiti to share their experience and passion for alternative cooking technologies.  ILF knew that, more than ever, after the earthquake families would need safe and efficient stoves to help them rebuild stable and sustainable lives amidst the rubble.  Whether living in a tent, under a tarp or repairing a broken home, improved stoves offer families daily savings on cooking fuel that can make the difference between eating two meals instead of one per day or being able to send a child to school.  ILF has witnessed that even small fuel savings, of 50 cents per day, add up to meaningful differences in the lives of our Haitian brothers and sisters.  

I (Elizabeth Sipple) joined the ILF team as the Haiti Country Director in May 2010.  I have lived and worked in Haiti full-time for over four years.  In 2002, while completing a GIS research and mapping project in the rural mountains of the Artibonite Valley, I was confronted by the incredible challenges that rural Haitians face (lack of health care, schools, infrastructure, technical assistance, food security).  I was struck that almost every family I met hoped that their children would have the opportunity to receive an education so that at least some of the children could find work away from the land.  Farming was so hard with so little profit that the younger generations were losing all interest in working the land; farming was no longer a respected profession.   It was painful to see that the farmers felt minimized by society, by the very society that they were nourishing through their labor.  I believe strongly in the abundance that nature can offer when stewarded correctly.   I also personally feel a deep respect and awe for the capability of those who work the land tirelessly to feed their families.  After my initial experience in rural Haiti I had already hatched a plan to return and as soon as I returned to the United States I decided to redirect my studies to the science of Agroecology. I choose Agroecology because I wanted practical tools to address what I felt were critical challenges in Haiti.  Overtime, I have come to better understand the complexity of the challenges that Haitian peasant farmers face, many being political and not agricultural.  In Haiti I have worked with people to achieve small sustainable victories (private tree gardens, small community nurseries, the strengthening of community organizations…) and I continuously learn how to work more effectively in a country full of complexity.

On January 12th I was in Port-au-Prince to experience the horror of the earthquake – the shock, the rush to action, the sadness.  I must say, however, that what will always stay with me is not the chaos or the sadness but the solidarity and the sense of hope that I felt all around me in the days following the earthquake.  In a time of so much need I saw giving and sharing everywhere.  Under the pain of all the loss there was a vein of deep hope that this tragedy would be a catalyst for change – that all the lives would not be lost in vain but instead remembered as the foundations of a new beginning for Haiti.  It is now 10 months after the earthquake and dramatic change is not readily apparent but I keep the hope of the people that there will be meaningful change.  Through my work with ILF I am personally committed to laying bricks in this new Haitian foundation, which must be built sustainably with the ability to endure overtime. 

Since the earthquake ILF has been working with its Haitian team to identify the best alternative cooking technologies for the Haitian people – technologies that are culturally acceptable (user-friendly), fuel efficient, offer families economic savings, are clean burning (healthy) and durable.  ILF is especially interested in stoves that are able to use alternative fuels that eliminate the need for charcoal and wood completely.  Haiti is less than 2% forested and deforestation for fuel wood is the major culprit. With deforestation comes soil erosion, floods, lowering water tables, disappearing springs, unpredictable rainy seasons and draught – and all of these phenomenon lead to diminishing crop yields and disappearing rural livelihoods.  Every year thousands of farmers abandon the rural parts of Haiti for the urban centers with the hope of finding work and a living that the degraded agro-ecosystems can no-longer provide.  Those who stay in the rural areas struggle to eke out a living on the denuded mountain slopes.  The deforestation of Haiti affects everyone in the country through high food and fuel prices, food shortages, over crowded cities, flash flooding… and yet every day more than 8 million people rely on burning wood or charcoal to cook their food.  This is the vicious cycle that ILF is working to intercept with improved stoves.  Through our work ILF is looking to promote two forms of sustainability: The first form of sustainability is environmental sustainability - by decreasing the demand on wood-based cooking fuels that lead to deforestation.   

The second is economic sustainability for families – by helping families decrease their cooking fuel expenses. On average our urban beneficiaries were spending 57.27 gourdes ($1.4 US) per day on charcoal before they received an improved stove.  With the StoveTec stove that ILF has distributed to earthquake victims our monitoring results show that families average daily expenditure on charcoal dropped to 29.47 gourdes.  On average displaced families are saving 27.8 gourdes ($0.69 US) per day due to fuel cost savings from their StoveTec stove or 778.4 gourdes ($19.4 US) per month.  To give you an idea of what 778 gourdes can provide a family we have listed some common items and their prices below:

• One gallon of oil = 250 gds
• One 25 kilo sac of imported Tchako rice = 750 gds
• One 25 kilo sac of local beans = 1,200 gds
• A Trimester (3 months) at a mid-range primary school = 2,000 – 2,500 gds (667 – 833 gds / month)

I would like to personally thank those who make ILF’s work in Haiti possible through their generous donations.  Without you ILF would be unable to provide improved stoves to Haitian families– 4,500 stoves and counting!!!   Thank you very much for your generosity and your solidarity with the people of Haiti. To learn more about ILF’s work in Haiti please visit the Haiti section of ILF’s website (www.lifelinefund.org).  

With love from Haiti,

Elizabeth Sipple

Haiti Country Director

E-mail: esipple@lifelinefund.org

Tel.: 011 (509) 3 622 6228

Binto - Senior Supervisor in Hagadera

*Most refugees living in Dadaab refugee camps have fled from Somalia as a result of the ongoing civil war.  There is little hope of returning home as the country is still embroiled in conflict and there is little opportunity for resettlement in Kenya.  Dadaab is currently home to approximately 300,000 refugees.*

My name is Binto, I have been living in Dadaab at the Hagadera refugee camp for 20 years now. In September 2007, when ILF introduced the rocket stove project to Dadaab I began working for them.  I am the senior supervisor of ILF’s Hagadera operation. I basically supervise and monitor the staff, do the daily reports, conduct the stove training sessions and manage the distribution.  ILF’s rocket stove project is appreciated by the refugee community because we give them a free stove, they save on firewood and they understand that it is helping protect the environment!

Hoi Trinh, Director of Program Development, visits the ILF team in Hagadera  

ILF Kenya - Living and Working in the Dadaab Refugee Camps

 50 miles from the Somalia border are the Dadaab refugee camps. This is the place I’ve called home for the past 15 months. Contrary to what one might think, this place has life, food, water, commerce, transportation means, cell phone reception, internet (occasionally at 3G speeds!) and the agency staff compounds in Dadaab town frequently throw down some of the best/craziest parties!


It’s not all fun and games though out here. The seemingly never-ending conflict in Somalia has seen the population of Dadaab’s 3 camps rise to over 260,000 individuals (approximately 4500 arriving per month since Jan 2010). The majority of these refugees are Somali, but you also have Ethiopians, Eritreans, Sudanese and other nationalities living in these camps. Shelter and cooking fuel are a major problem out here. This being a semi arid area, twigs (for shelter) and firewood (for cooking) are quite scarce.


Therefore, anything that reduces firewood consumption is an essential part of the Dadaab Refugee operation.  ILF’s rocket stove helps save 30% of firewood usage compared to the open (3 stone) fire the refugees initially used. I oversee this project out here and have 15 staff in Hagadera camp and another 10 in Ifo camp.  All our staff are refugees, working for us under the ‘incentive worker’ program.


Some of the biggest pluses of my job is that I get to go out into the refugee blocks and mix and mingle with the refugees to get their reactions to our stoves, hear their stories, take walks into the camp markets and hang out with the kids in the blocks. 

One of my biggest highlights was seeing a lady who used our stoves to make ‘samosas’ that she then sold in the market. She was quite pleased with our stove, and said it improved her profit margins, as she now spent less on buying firewood.

I’m really glad to have gotten this opportunity to work out here, see this highly unique situation /station (there’s no way to really explain this place to anyone who hasn’t been here themselves!) and be part of a project that is not only helping conserve the environment, but also helping the refugees help themselves.


Jason Monteiro
Environmental Program Officer
Dadaab, Kenya 

ILF Uganda

I am Amandine Desaunay, the new Uganda Country Director for ILF since May 2010. Although I am new to ILF I am not new to Uganda as I have lived here for eight years and I don’t intend to leave! I came to Uganda to do a three-month internship after my second master’s degree (in Humanitarian Assistance) and I never left. After the internship I entered the humanitarian field, working for various organizations, including UN and a number of NGOs.  My new post with ILF is very exciting to me as ILF is different from other big organizations I have worked for; it is more dynamic and flexible and there is more room for initiative, changes and expression.

ILF has been in Uganda since 2006 and is currently running two main programs: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion (WASH) and Environment, specifically the production and distribution of energy efficient cooking stoves for wood and charcoal.

To be able to implement these programs ILF Uganda has a team of 27 dedicated members.  The team can be presented in 3 sections: 2 program teams and 1 support team. The WASH program team comprises of 1 program manager, 4 drillers, 2 hydro technicians and 3 Sanitation and Hygiene Officers. The Environment team comprises of 2 Program Managers (one for Lira and one for Kampala, where ILF is about to expand its programs to), 2 commercialization officers, 2 stoves officers and 1 production officer (based in the stove factory). The support team comprises of: 1 logistics manager, 1 admin and finance manager, 2 drivers, 4 watchmen and 1 cleaner.

ILF has its own drilling equipment and is therefore self reliant within the whole process of drilling, from determining where water is to installing the wells with efficient pumps and testing the quality of the water.  While these tasks are handled by the drillers and hydro technicians, the sanitation team takes care of the software component of the program, training community members on how to maintain cleanliness of the water points drilled by ILF, creating and training hygiene promotion trainers at the village level in order to attain improved hygiene practices, and promoting latrines construction at the household level.

The commercialization team is in charge of promoting, marketing and selling ILF Okelo Kuc charcoal stoves to a vendor network that reaches many major cities and trading centers all over Uganda. The stove team is in charge of institutional stoves construction as well as what ILF calls humanitarian stove distribution, which are rocket stoves for villagers in Lira region.  The production officer is in charge of the factory where all the ILF bricks (a mix of clay and rice husk for better heat retention) for Institutional and rocket stoves are produced as well as the whole Okelo Kuc stoves. He supervises a contractor team of 20 people who help in making stove jackets for the Okelo Kuc design, mix clay and rice husk for the bricks, mold the bricks, and pack and paint the stoves.

The support team is crucial to the successful and smooth running of the programs. It is this team that is in charge of all purchases of materials and items needed for programs, maintain all the equipments and vehicles, and drive the programs team safely (most of the time!) to the field, guard ILF’s teams and properties and keep ILF office and guesthouse clean and fresh and make all of us keep our good moods throughout.

ILF Uganda team likes to call itself a family and it is really a family (that would make me the mama but I don’t mind!) who cares about each member and gives equal importance to all brothers and sisters and parents. We stand tight in time of sorrow (death of any members’ relatives, accident of colleagues…), we share and discuss when problems arise and we find solutions together. We are a family, we are friends and we are colleagues all at the same time. This makes our daily work enjoyable, energetic and peaceful.  

Warm regards from Uganda.

Amandine Desaunay

New York, New York – September 24, 2010

It really is true. There’s no other city in the world like NYC. Mexico city might have more people. Paris might have older buildings. And Tokyo might have a better subway, but all in all, none of them has the same energy like NYC. Nor its creativity. Nor the many faces drawn from all corners of the world. From Serbia to Manila (as in the case of two beautiful hostesses that we met at an upmarket bar last night). From Iran to Vietnam (as in the case of our Deputy Director, Vahid Jahangiri and myself). Or in this particular instance, from Washington DC, where Dan came up to meet with us for several meetings with our donors (and potential ones).

First stop. The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves Launch yesterday at the fancy New York Marriot East Side on Lexington St. All the big guys were there: WFP, UNDP, USAID, EPA, CGI, etc… Great speeches were made and lofty goals were declared. But I will leave it up to VJ or Dan to talk more about it.

Second stop. Meeting with Charity: Water today at noon. We talked about our report submitted a few weeks ago detailing how 63 boreholes were drilled over this past year benefiting some 36,448 Ugandans, many of whom are children. They said they like our report a lot so hopefully, we will get the same financial support for our next 2010 – 2011 proposal to drill and repair another 60 boreholes, 20 of which we will work side by side with our new partner, Invisibile Children, in Gulu, an area near the border of Southern Sudan.

Third stop. Meeting with WFP and others at the Clinton Foundation at 4pm in…. Harlem. Yep. It was right there where all the Harlem action is on 125th St. And although it took us all a while to get there (thanks to the UN gathering, the traffic was horrendous), the meeting was very productive. If and when 1000 schools in Haiti get clean cookstoves next year through WFP and us, you’ll know how it all started.

Our last stop before we each went our separate ways (VJ back to Haiti, Dan off to another meeting with his litigation lawyer friends, and myself back to DC on the last train arriving at 2 in the morning!) was at an Irish bar near Times Square where over a couple of beers, we debriefed ourselves, discussed how we can move our operation forward with new and exciting projects and with a hint of regret, wondered out loud why none of us chose to stay on for a, er, fun weekend in swanky NYC.

Well, I had a perfect excuse because my first son was born only just a few weeks ago. But given that Dan and VJ aren’t married, what’s up with that?  I did ask but didn’t get any answer.  Oh well, at least it was worthwhile a work trip for us all.

Till next time New York.

Hoi Trinh

Director of Program Development

ILF Headquarters, Washington DC

Inaugural Post from ILF Founder Dan Wolf

Dear friends of Lifeline.  Welcome to our new blog.  We have launched this blog in an effort to get you better connected with our expat and local staff – about 100 strong and growing – who are the life blood of our organization.  Through the medium of cyber-space, you will be able to learn what Lifeline is really doing out there in the field and the affect our work is having on people who are living very different lives than those to which we are accustomed.  To this end, two of our staff members will be blogging each week from one of our four offices located in Uganda, Kenya, Haiti and DC.  As the founder and executive director of Lifeline, it falls on me to get the process started with our very first blog.  So here goes.

How It All Got Started

Believe it or not, Lifeline is the product of a lawsuit that I brought back in December 1999 on behalf of a group of American citizens who had been taken hostage by the former Iraqi regime following its invasion of Kuwait in August 1990.  Most everyone thought that this was a lost cause.  Sure, you could probably get a court to award judgments to the victims but how were you ever going to get Iraq to pay them?  Go to war?  Well, we did go to war, but actually the victims got paid just before it began when we managed to get a law past giving them the right to collect their awards against blocked Iraqi assets that were sitting in two major US banks.  I took a substantial portion of my fee award and used it to start Lifeline and its sister organization, the George Wolf Memorial Trust, which is named after my father. 

What We’ve Been Doing These Past Few Years

Well, you can find out about most of what we’ve been up to by exploring our website.  But just to give you a brief history.  For the first couple of years, I didn’t have a lot of time to devote to Lifeline and so I teamed up with an organization I had been involved with since 1988 called Refugees International (RI) to help advocate for refugees in Africa and Asia.  In July 2004, I sponsored an RI mission to Darfur, where I saw for myself the extent to which deforestation had destroyed the landscape and learned about all the health, livelihood and security problems associated with cooking on an open fire.  A year later, in 2006, Lifeline launched its stove programs in Darfur and Northern Uganda.  Since then, we’ve had our share of ups and downs, but, over the next four years, we managed to provide stoves to about 50,000 impoverished villagers who were displaced by violence in those areas, another 10,000 or so to Somali and Burundese refugees in Kenya and Tanzania, and 5,000 more to victims of the earthquake in Haiti. 

Where We Go From Here

A few years ago, Lifeline was a fledgling start-up organization.  This year we have become the de facto lead agency promoting sustainable fuel technologies in Haiti.  In the years ahead, our goals are far more ambitious.  We hope to grow our water program to the point at which we will be providing a long term solution to the clean water needs of hundreds of thousands of African villagers who are currently drinking from stagnant pools.  With regard to clean cooking, we hope to dramatically expand our reach by using carbon credits to promote a market for affordable stoves to the poorest of the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa, Haiti and beyond.  

That’s enough from me.  Tune in next week when you will hear from our country director and environmental program manager with the latest from Uganda.  I hope you enjoy the blogging and thank you all for your support for Lifeline and its mission.


Dan Wolf
Executive Director 
ILF Headquarters, Washington DC

Lifeline's 2010 Fundraiser