Lifeline's Founder in the Field

This past December, I traveled to Uganda and Kenya for three weeks to assess the progress of our programs.  It was my first visit in nearly 18 months.  I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect.  This was my longest absence from the field since Lifeline had launched operations in 2006.  Perhaps I should stay away longer next time.  To paraphrase the President in his speech last week, “the state of the Lifeline union is strong and its future is bright.”


Our operation has never been more professional, our productivity never so great, our team never more efficient, its morale never so high.  Our new country director in Uganda, the incomparable Amandine Desaunay, has worked hard to empower our local staff and to instill in them a sense of pride in their work and their mission.  The change in atmosphere was palpable and goes a long way to explain the progress we have made since Ama took charge of the office in April of last year.  A couple illustrations should provide some sense of what I mean.


First, about two months before my arrival, our office administrator, Rhembo Nyanga, nearly lost his leg and severely injured his arm in a terrible on-the-job motorcycle accident.  Just a couple of days after having been released from the hospital, Rhembo somehow managed to summon the strength to show up at our office Christmas party, where I met him for the first time.  I told him how sorry I was about his accident, but Rhembo would hear none of it.  He was just thankful to be back with his team.  He spoke glowingly of his work for Lifeline and told me he couldn’t wait to get back on the job after the New Year.  I didn’t want to dampen his enthusiasm by telling him he was being unrealistic – with Rhembo confined to a wheelchair, his leg and arm in a cast and a great deal of rehabilitation ahead of him, I saw no way that he could possibly make it back that soon.  Turns out Rhembo (or is that Rambo?) was right.  I was wrong and we are all absolutely delighted to have him back.


The second incident I want to relay concerns our drilling team.  A couple months prior to my arrival in Uganda, the team had begun work on a Charity Water grant under which Lifeline committed to produce 55 boreholes within 12 months’ time.  Unfortunately, the project had not gotten off to a very smooth start – owing to very loose clay formation in the area we were drilling our first couple attempts failed and then, to make matter worse, we lost a vital piece of equipment – a drilling hammer – which got stuck some 50 meters below the surface. As a result, we fell behind in our work by about six weeks.  But, for the members of the drilling team this was not acceptable. They insisted on working over the Christmas holiday (when our office is closed) and I am delighted to report that, by now, they are all but
caught up and we are on track to finish the project on time.


These are just two of many highlights from my trip.  Others include the substantial progress we have made in Uganda toward the acquisition of carbon financing for our stove program and the vote of confidence we have received from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Kenya, which is anxious for us to get registered so that they can fund the expansion of our projects along the Somali border of that country.  I could go on and on, but I think this should give you a pretty good idea of the positive direction things are moving in here at Lifeline.  Stay tuned for more exciting developments.


Dan Wolf 
Executive Director and Lifeline Founder
Washington, DC

Labeja Joins ILF

March 15^th 2010 at 9:00am was my first day to start work with ILF as the  Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Program Manager in Lira Uganda.

I entered into office and there was no one to hand the program over to me.  I did not know anybody and I did not have anything to start with but suddenly a lady entered my office with some files and said: “How are you Michael?!”  She introduced herself as Alison, the Program Manager for the fuel–efficient stove program and introduced me to others in the office.  Before she left she gave me instructions for the work that I was to be doing.

The file she gave me was full of applications for drilling team recruitment and with instructions from the former Country Director to shortlist and interview for the new drilling team.  I said woo!  Is that the situation?  I was excited to have that kind of responsibility.  I put myself down to work and managed the shortlist. Now I have found that it was a very good thing to find and hire a new team to work with because a new manager with a new drilling team brings new thinking.

 Uganda Country Director Amandine Desaunay, Deputy Director Vahid Jahangiri,

and members of Labeja's recruited drilling team conducting a pump test on a borehole.

Ho! I tell you, I later realized that the team that I had recruited is the best! They are very hard working, experienced, motivated and results oriented.  I was happy to have my team but I was frustrated by the numbers of wells to drill.  We were supposed to have 28 wells completed within three months; I couldn’t believe how much work we had cut out for us!  At the time it was a nightmare but in four months 32 wells were drilled and completed.

 Community members with one of the 32 completed boreholes.

ILF is a very interesting organization to work with, I am free to plan and decide on my own for my program and I am very happy. If you are a manager in ILF, you are not a manager only by title who waits for someone to direct you or take over everything; you have to have initiative and creativity.  I think I have made the right decision to join ILF and I have no regrets.

Long live ILF, Long live Dan and all staff of ILF elsewhere in the world. 

Michael Labeja

WASH PM

Lira, Uganda

The Joy and Beauty of Clean Water

Take the time to watch this truly moving and beautiful video from ILF's Brian Martin.  In it you will see firsthand the process, and ultimate joy, of providing access to a clean water source in Northern Uganda.  Brian first began his work with ILF in Uganda and is currently in Haiti designing a new stove prototype for ILF's household fuel-efficient stove program.  Read his latest blog from the field here.  It is so easy in our busy day-to-day lives to lose sight of what brings us joy and what is really important in this world.  This video serves as a wonderful reminder.

Article in Good Magazine

ILF is extremely excited to be featured in Good Magazine's series about energy and the environment!  You can find the article here.  Please feel free to tweet, blog, facebook, e-mail, and generally share this great article with your friends, family, and coworkers.  More information about our work in Haiti, Kenya, and Uganda can be found at our website http://www.lifelinefund.org.

One of Lifeline's stoves in action.  Notice the traditional stove 

next to it, unused and unloved!

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