Building Up & Supporting Sierra Leone One Scooter at a Time!
Michael Lee
Hi FoSL Members!
A few weeks ago, FoSL reached out to our members looking for individuals or organizations that are doing amazing work throughout Sierra Leone, looking for the unsung heroes. Amazingly, we got so many responses and we’d like to start highlighting their accomplishments and projects! This week we would like to introduce to you, Kent Winchester and his initiatives with petrol-free scooters and clean-air solar cookers that he hopes can improve the environment as well as the health and productivity of Sierra Leoneans.
A little about Kent Winchester…
Following college in 1967, Kent joined the Peace Corps and served for two years in Kabala, Sierra Leone from 1967-69. His role was Community Development Specialist and he was assigned to advise a vegetable cooperative and assist with FAO Fertilizer Demonstration Plots. Afterwards, Kent returned home and continued to reflect about Sierra Leone, his past role, the what and the why.
Over the years, Kent learned about new technology and casually wondered how it might be useful back in Sierra Leone. A friend, former Peace Corps Volunteer, Chris Siegler, and wife Jeanne, were going back to advise an agriculture project and invited Kent to join him. Kent said yes, and only had a few months before leaving. Quickly, Kent researched two areas of potential usefulness and planned to bring technology with him to Sierra Leone.
Solar and Heat Retention Basket Cooking
Kent experimented and demonstrated it years earlier while co-facilitating a team building seminar. He had read it had been successfully introduced in Kenya, Uganda, Chad and South Africa. Kent also learned it had been introduced at Njala University in the late 1980s without success due to lack of government support at the time and, over the years, the war, Ebola and COVID pandemics did not help either. He contacted the solar cooker inventor and workshop facilitators and they graciously provided training and solar cookers to take with him.
Chukudu, a Wooden Scooter
Kent also learned about a Chukudu, a wooden scooter invented by Africans in Democratic Republic of the Congo. This scooter could carry 1000 lbs. It was inexpensive, used local skills, materials, wood and could be built in one day. Congo wooden scooter drivers earned up to $15 US dollars in one day. The average rural wage in Congo and Sierra Leone is still less than $2 US dollars per day. Kent borrowed the free design and built one with a neighbor before his trip. Then, in January 2023, he brought that knowledge, hand tools, materials, free design and solar cookers on his trip to Sierra Leone. It was an exciting trip for Kent because it's been over 56 years since his first trip there as a PCV!
Kent introduced both technologies to Isatu Kamara at Mamaka Village and Central University. Isatu expressed ambition and demonstrated willingness to be a business and social entrepreneur. He first explained, demonstrated, and introduced solar cooking and heat retention basket cooking. Solar cooking can purify water (reducing dysentery, one of five leading causes of death), reduce lung cancer and smoke related illnesses (one of five leading causes of death), reduce need for charcoal and wood to help eliminate deforestation, erosion and landslides. One third of the cooking is done using a solar cooker and two thirds of the cooking is completed using a heat retention basket. She quickly absorbed training and has successfully introduced technology to the Renewable Energy Program at Central University. Isatu has since become a student there and is assisting faculty to develop and implement this solar cooking curriculum. Back in her village, Isatu has since taught 30 women how to use this cooker and each has begun making heat retention baskets. She continues to wonder how this technology can improve lives and create jobs.
Next, Kent showed Isatu how to easily, quickly make one wooden scooter. Over the past year, she now has 10 scooters and is introducing this new technology in Mile 91, Bo and possibly Makeni and Freetown. Other Peace Corps friends of his are helping to support Sierra Leoneans to adopt this technology and in other locations. One couple, Bob and Julie Granger, supported a student to complete college there, bought two of Isatu's scooters for this person to introduce in Bo. Isatu's goal is to build a wooden scooter factory. Her business is called Mamas Kas Wooden Cargo Transport Scooters, where all the scooters are built in Mamaka Village. She is happy that this technology was invented by Africans. In her appreciation, she has plans to return some of the proceeds to the inventor, who generously shared free design with her. She is a trained bookkeeper and has demonstrated how to manage, save and plan for future development.
After Kent returned home to the States, he continues to coach Isatu via WhatsApp. Within one year, Isatu has expanded her business; and she is introducing scooters in several new locations. She is assisting Central University and Mamaka Village to use solar and heat retention basket cooking to improve lives, create jobs and reduce food insecurity.
Kent believes that there is a lot more to come; and, he believes that his initiatives can spread throughout Sierra Leone, positively helping communities as well as creating local, small businesses. He is always very willing and pleased to share his knowledge and contacts on Solar and Heat Retention Cooking and design, implementation of wooden cargo transport scooter business to be used throughout Sierra Leone.
If you have any questions for Kent or interested in learning more about his initiatives, please reach out to him directly at: kentwi...@yahoo.com
Please see the attachment document for for pictures of the solar cooker, the wooden scooter, as well as a fact sheet about the solar cooker. Also, here is the link to a video on YouTube of the wooden scooter in action: https://youtu.be/M3pA3cb3MP0
On behalf of Kent, we would like to thank the following individuals that made his initiatives even possible:
Roger Haines, Inventor, Haines 2.0 Solar Cooker used in Africa, Mexico, Haiti and elsewhere.
Mary Buchenic and Jennifer Gasser, Solar Education Project
Aime' Nishimiyimana, Chukudu Scooter Modern Designer - Free Design
Kziba Refugee Camp, Rwanda
Make Magazine, "How to Build a Burly Wooden Scooter" Congo, Chukudu (Free Scooter MODERN Design)
Isatu Muckson Kamara
Owner, Mamas Kas Wooden Cargo Transport Scooter, Mamaka Village
Owner, Mamaka Solar and Heat Retention Basket Making Company
Consultant, Solar Cooking for Central University
Bookkeeper, farmer for Mamaka Village Agriculture Project
Chris Siegler (and his wife, Jeanne)
Advisor to Mamaka Village Agriculture Project
Partner with Ahmed Muckson Sesay, Founder of Mamaka Agriculture Project, Muckson recently voted President of Farmers for Sierra Leone
Board Member, Right Sharing of World Resources