Shea Update - Field Ready Prototype Complete
If you’ve been following along with our Shea project updates, you can skip to the article below. If not, here’s what we have been working on: Burn Design Lab has partnered with Burro Brand Ghana Ltd. to design an improved Shea roaster for implementation in northwest Ghana for the benefit of shea butter supply chain workers. Under existing conditions, predominantly female workers suffer from numerous ergonomic and health related issues. These issues include shoulder pain, exposure to heat, and pollutant inhalation. BDL aims for our improved design to reduce fuel consumption by 60% and reduce particulate emissions by 90%, in a roaster that is much easier to operate. (Right, Ghana, a shea butter supply chain worker turns a heavy drum over an open fire)
Roaster prototypes completed by our engineers in the last few months show a doubling in fuel efficiency (you may remember that Ghana is losing it’s forests at an alarming rate) and an 80% reduction in carbon monoxide emissions. We are happy to report that we successfully built a full-size prototype suitable for trial in Ghana. We look forward to bringing it to Ghana this spring where the women can provide feedback and we can continue to reiterate the design and improve it further!
As of this printing, we are still working to replace the withdrawn funds from the Winrock grant. Thanks to some major support, we are able to continue working on the project while we seek the additional funds to complete the project. All of us at BDL thank you for your support in helping the women of Ghana working in the hand-crafted Shea butter industry. Your support keeps this project going, which will free these women from the smoke and burdens that they currently face.
-Paul Means, Executive Director