By Kimberly Rupnarain, Miriam Booy
Two years ago, Marie Angel was struggling in school. Although she loved her classes, she couldn’t do her homework at night because there was no light in her home. Everything changed, however, when her parents decided to participate in a household biogas program.
Marie is the eldest of five children. Her family of seven are all now benefitting from their home’s biogas system.
“I used to hear on the radio that cow manure could be used for something like this, but I could not imagine it until I saw it,” says Marie’s mother, Aulerie.
The resourceful biogas structure runs off of cow manure, and now fuels Aulerie’s stove, as well as a light in every room of their home—including one outside. Any surplus goes back into the farm and acts as fertilizer for the family’s banana trees and cabbage crops. The system itself cost Marie’s family 125,000 francs, after receiving help from the local government and World Vision.
Marie says that she can now study at night because there is light in her bedroom. Her grades have improved, and she passed her primary school exams last year. She recently went shopping for school supplies to begin secondary school.
Aurelie is thankful for the support of Marie’s Canadian sponsor and for the biogas program that has dramatically changed the family’s life.
“We used to have to buy a lot of kerosene and batteries for lights, but now nothing is wasted in our household,” she says.
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