Baha speaking at Harvard Business School – Photo: CNN
It wasn’t until he found any trace of him in the news that the young man now learned that his adoptive family—who had sheltered him when he was at his worst—did not survive the landslide. I am shocked
from the shock of losing a loved one
Three days of torrential rain in the West African country of Sierra Leone caused reddish-brown soil to flow down the slopes of Sugarloaf Mountain. The sinkhole opened wide. Residents in the area said they heard rumblings or bomb-like sounds before the ground collapsed.
Alhaji Siraj Bah, a young man now 24 years old, would have been at the disaster site on the morning of August 2017 if his employer had not called him for the night shift.
He may have shared a bedroom with his best friend, Abdul, whom he used to call his brother. At the time of the landslide, he was sweeping the floor of a drinking water factory, when 1,141 people, including Abdul’s family, were killed and missing.
He recalls: “I was completely shattered at that moment. So I knew I had to act now.” Four years later, Bah runs his own business with about 30 employees with an ambitious goal: reducing tree felling in Sierra Leone—a factor scientists say is causing the loss of trees. This will increase the risk of landslides.
Therefore, he encouraged people to use charcoal made from shredded coconut instead of charcoal. It most closely matches the realities of Sierra Leone.
“The hardest part was convincing people about the feasibility of this solution, because they were used to using charcoal,” Bah said. Sierra Leone has lost 30% of its forest area in the past two decades, according to Global Forest Watch, an international deforestation monitoring program.
Bah found that people in her neighborhood cut wood almost every day, both for housing purposes, and to make charcoal, the main fuel for cooking.
Bah workers pressing coconut shells into charcoal briquettes – photo: The Washington Post
idol mark zuckerberg
As a teenager, Bah learned a lot from Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. According to his mother, Bah was determined to do great things because he was inspired by his role model.
Unfortunately his father died two years later, the family lost the main breadwinner taking care of him and his sister. So, at the age of 12, he ran away from home and moved to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.
He said, “I consider this the promised land. I feel if I come here, I can feed my whole family.” Bah lived on the streets for four years and washed cars for a living. He later meets Abdul at a football field and the two become close. He moved in with his family for nine months before the terrible landslide happened.
Foday Conteh, 23, who met Bah when they were both living across the street, said: “After that terrible landslide, he was always immersed in YouTube. Bah was always obsessed with finding ways to prevent disaster Is. Cut down the forest”.
Bah was fascinated by a short video about a man in Indonesia making alternative coal from coconut shells. Not only that, many others in Ghana and Kenya are doing the same thing: collecting shredded coconuts, drying them in the sun, crushing them, and then burning them in steel barrels.
He saw workers mixing black powder with a tapioca-like binder. He then put the mixture into a machine to make rotis and cut them into squares. “It’s a great business idea,” Bah said.
He continued to research the subject on his boss’s computer. The machine that made those loaves cost about $3,000, so Bah expressed a willingness to work overtime to earn extra income. Ejatu Sese, the wife of the Bah boss, recalls: “He was very young, but his determination in Bah was awe-inspiring.”
The salary alone wasn’t enough, so he decided to follow the plan of another young Ugandan entrepreneur he’d read about, who started a recycling bag business with $18. Bah went to shops across the city, hoping to get half the money at first to buy fashion bags made from discarded paper.
A manager agreed, and Bah had the capital to make 1,000 bags. The order took five days to fulfill and earned him $100. From there more customers started appearing. Within a few months, the young man bought the necessary machinery to make briquettes from coconut shells.
Making charcoal from discarded coconut shells to save trees
Given the destruction of trees due to deadly landslides, Bah is always concerned about protecting and planting more trees – photo CNN
At first Bah needed a lot of coconut shells, and he got his supply from juice vendors dumping them around town. Then he found more information about this coal online.
Research in Ghana has shown that briquettes made from coconut shell smolder twice as long as charcoal. This is the key to Bah’s attractiveness: customers will certainly want to save as much money as possible, moreover, the benefits for the environment will be an additional factor to convince them.
According to the Washington Post, he contacted Sule Amin Abubakar, a Ghanaian businessman who had founded a coconut briquette empire.
“Bahá seemed so passionate, like he really wanted to do something different,” said Abubakar, who shared the secrets of Bahá’s process that helped make Bahá’s second attempt a success. Labor.
The list of customers grew, including grocery stores around Freetown. He left the workshop and set up a temporary residence on the outskirts of the capital.
He named his company Rugsal Trading after his mother (Rugiyatu) and father (Sailiyu). He also applied for grants throughout Africa and the United States.
The United Nations named him a finalist for “Young Champion of the Earth” in 2019. He was invited to present at a startup conference at Harvard Business School, where Bah won an award. $5,000 Bonus.
The Rugsall company has grown from a small piece of land large enough to build a room to a vast land of more than 3 hectares outside the city.
One fine morning, Bah strolled around his property, past tomato and bell pepper fields, to a spot where two workers were transferring coconut shells into steel barrels.
Nearby, four other workers operated three briquetting machines that ground the husk in a grinder. Another person sat on the ground and started cutting the rotis into square pieces.
After roasting them in the October heat, Bah would check each one with a stomp. Whatever broke under his shoes meant that he failed the test. His business produced 9 tons that month.
Bah said, “I used to be a homeless boy. And now, in a month when the conditions are favorable, we can make a revenue of $11,000.” But most importantly, the coconut shell charcoal briquettes sold by them saved many trees.
But deforestation still worries Alhaji Siraj Bah. Charcoal is still king in Africa – the continent accounts for 65% of global charcoal production and people are still cutting down trees on Sugarloaf Mountain.
Sierra Leone’s president vowed at the 2021 UN climate summit in Glasgow to halt deforestation by 2030, and Bah hopes he will keep his word.
The West African man has recently ordered an assembly line from China so that the company can produce 8 tonnes of briquettes an hour. Bah also plans to expand this work to Guinea and Liberia, as forests there are at risk.
,
“The whole world is becoming more aware of our relationship with animals and nature as humans”…
Next Episode: Friend of the Wild Lion
(tagstotranslate)protect the planet
