Sector Directory

Organization

Community Servants

Mission

To contribute to the socio-economic empowerment of® vulnerable women and youth through research, capacity building, access to education and training and creation of linkages aimed at self-reliance and reducing poverty for the attainment of decent livelihoods.

Other Organization Type

N/A

Organizational Expertise

Capacity Building, Climate/Environment, Gender / Womens Empowerment, Health, Livelihoods, Research, Technology and Fuel R&D

Other Organizational Expertise

Counselling. CS counsels alcoholics and drug addicts. We then send them to rehabilitation centres. We have been doing this for the last 2®½ years.

Technologies & Fuels

Biogas, Biomass (Ag. Residue, Processed Biomass, etc.), Ethanol / Alcohol

Other Technologies Fuels

Appropriate technology

Clean Cooking Activities

PRODUCTION OF RENEWABLE ENERGY FROM CASTOR OIL PLANTS, RICINUS COMMUNIS
Community Servants proposes to embark on large-scale planting of castor oil trees whose seeds will be used for the production of castor oil, a major source of renewable energy, biofuel. This will be done through a campaign christened “Panda Ujisajili Utajiri†Initiative, which loosely translates to “plant for prosperityâ€.
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This initiative will be carried out throughout the country in a phased form. The campaign will kick off in Central Kenya, then replicated to other parts of the country. The major issue here is to hold workshops with potential farmers, sensitive them on environmental conservation, train them on the best ways to grow the plant for optimum yield and provide them with the castor seeds. Community Servants will eventually buy the seeds from the farmers.

The seeds will then be crushed in a factory to produce castor oil. After purification, the oil will then be converted into bio fuel, some of which will be sold back to farmers for household use like cooking. The fuel is vital to the rural poor for household use like cooking. The fuel produced, on the other hand, is non-flammable (thus ensuring safety in the cooking environ), non-toxic, has high energy content (saves about 40% of the energy cost compared to charcoal, firewood or LPG), is mosquito repellent and it is smokeless and odorless (eliminating smoke in kitchens and thus improving health). The fuel is also extensively used in boarding schools, colleges and universities in Kenya for cooking and heating water. All this is possible through use of prototype stoves and cookers (renewable energy carriers) manufactured by CS. On the macro level, the fuel is gaining popularity and is used by major manufacturing companies in Kenya, in lieu of the common diesel and petrol. Indeed, the demand for this biofuel in Kenya today far outweighs supply.

Target Beneficiaries
(i) Rural women, youth and their families who will enjoy decent livelihoods having hitherto wallowed in abject poverty
(ii) Rural women, youth and their families employed in the factories
(iii) Ordinary Kenyans who will benefit health-wise from a clean environment
(iv) Community-Based Organizations who will be called upon to partner and/or assist
(v) Local people who are entrepreneurially oriented to take advantage of emerging opportunities, e.g. stocking and selling fuel, trading in stoves and cookers, building low-cost rental houses for the factory workers, selling land, etc.
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Those who will be directly involved in farming will be expected to own at least one acre of land for planting. For maximum yield, 2 Kgs of castor oil seeds will be adequate for planting on one acre of land. Therefore with 100,000 Kgs of castor oil seeds, the target beneficiaries (assuming one acre of land per farmer) will be (100,000 / 2) 50,000 farmers. Out of these farmers, 60% will be women.

Partnership

CS would like to participate in the partnership as Implementer Partners. Community Servants (CS) is a national NGO. Our registration no. is OP.218/051/11-0154/7017, dated March 31, 2011 (see attachment). Community Servants' core business is Capacity Building. Through capacity building, we enhance the dignity and self-reliance of vulnerable groups particularly the youth and women. Our core platforms are mainly on youth and women development and livelihoods.
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The most active department in CS is known as SERVE (SERVants of Environment) and it extensively researches on agricultural farming, appropriate technology, climate change and environmental degradation. We have a stand-by consultant who is a Ph.D holder in Environmental Science. The department is currently working in partnership with Allavida on a one-year project to produce Briquettes (a household and institutional fuel, made by compacting biomass waste). In May 2013, CS worked in partnership with Australia Africa Community Grants Scheme (AACGS) for a 1®½-year Groundnuts Farming project in Murang'a. In 2012, CS mobilized recovering alcohol and drug abusers and successfully carried out a one-year project of reforestation in the Marmanet forest, in partnership with Faces and Voices of Recovery (USA). In total, Community Servants has 10 Board Members and 12 staff members.

Regions Operating In

Sub-Saharan Africa

Country Based In

Kenya

Address

P. O Box 44298
N/A
Nairobi, Nairobi 100

Website

https://www.community-servants.org

Primary Point of Contact

Name: Mr. Stanley Ndung'u

Title: Executive Director

Email: community.servants@yahoo.com

Phone: 254715393904

Secondary Point of Contact

Name: Ms. Rachel Irungu

Title: Board Secretary

Email: rachelwangui@yahoo.com

Phone: 254732687408