"Students Collaborating to Build Biodigesters as an Alternative Fuel Source in Rural South Africa"
For six weeks this summer, undergraduate engineering students Shokoufeh Dianat, Ricky Sahu, and Veronica Yeh from the University of Virginia worked alongside undergraduates Irene Makuya, Violet Makuya, and Shadrack Ramabulana from the University of Venda (UNIVEN) on a community engagement project in two rural villages of Venda, South Africa. Together, they built two biodigesters, which they hope will replace the use of firewood and unaffordable electricity with renewable methane gas. The biodigester uses cow dung and water to produce energy for cooking. Its potential impacts span many aspects of village life. Use of the biodigester reduces deforestation, reduces the daily inhaling of smoke and particulates, frees the time that women spend gathering wood, serves as experiential learning for the students in the community, and does its share to reduce global warming. Many of these issues were underlined in the initial SAVANA Consortium's proposal established in part by our UNIVEN mentors and UVA advisor Professor Bob Swap. One of the students' goals was to impart all the knowledge they had procured about the biodigester with their University of Venda partners and with the villagers so that the community members felt ownership of the biodigester.
The University of Virginia students also filmed a participatory documentary with a group of 9th graders who revealed the problem that they find most troubling in their communities: teenage use of drugs and alcohol. As their documentary shows, they find this disruptive to the education in schools and unhealthy for their development.