{"id":4642,"date":"2011-08-01T09:29:48","date_gmt":"2011-08-01T16:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stirringthefire.com\/blog\/?p=1177"},"modified":"2014-05-14T15:29:14","modified_gmt":"2014-05-14T22:29:14","slug":"can-charcoal-bring-a-liberia-out-of-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philborges.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/01\/can-charcoal-bring-a-liberia-out-of-poverty\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Charcoal Bring a Liberia Out of Poverty?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lead\"><em>Phil is in Liberia documenting the work of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.foundationforwomen.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Foundation for Women<\/a>\u00a0(FFW), an organization that strives to continually support and encourage impoverished women, both globally and locally, by funding and creating microcredit programs. A longtime supporter of Phil and his work, Kevin Castner is traveling with him and reporting back to us from the field.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The five businesses that the Foundation For Women in Liberia support most are:\u00a0 selling charcoal, selling used clothing, selling palm oil, selling small things, and hairstyling.\u00a0By far, selling charcoal is the most profitable despite the environmental impacts.\u00a0I want to know why FFW supports this business and the logistics of the trade.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1168\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stirringthefire.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=1168\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1168\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1168\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1168\" title=\"IMG_0503\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stirringthefire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/IMG_0503.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1168\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Foundation for Women in Monrovia<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Charles Naiwah, FFW\u2019s Program Director, tells me how it works.\u00a0Somewhere in the bush someone cuts down trees, burns them and makes charcoal.\u00a0 Charcoal buyers find out where and when the charcoal will be available.\u00a0Charles says the costs per bag are about 225-235LB total, factoring in transportation and licensing.\u00a0A 25-pound bag sells for 325LB in central Monrovia, but the sellers often resell the charcoal in smaller bags to earn a bigger profit margin.\u00a0Still, the margin on buying and selling a 25-pound bag is around 100LB, or about $1.30-$1.40 U.S.\u00a0That is considered a very profitable business.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1180\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stirringthefire.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/01\/can-charcoal-bring-a-liberia-out-of-poverty\/img_0608\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1180\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1180\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1180\" title=\"IMG_0608\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stirringthefire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/IMG_0608.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1180\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Woman Balancing a Bag of Charcoal<\/p><\/div>\n<p>With a FFW microcredit loan, an enterprising group of women can rent a bigger truck and load as many as 500 bags of charcoal. Even \u2018uncut\u2019 that could be a $650-$700 profit. In a country where the average annual per capita income is among the very lowest in the world and a significant proportion of the population lives in poverty on less than $1U.S. per day, this is big money.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1181\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stirringthefire.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/01\/can-charcoal-bring-a-liberia-out-of-poverty\/img_0629\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1181\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1181\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1181\" title=\"IMG_0629\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stirringthefire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/IMG_0629.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1181\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Woman&#39;s Front Porch Doubles as a Charcoal Warehouse<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Liberian women use the money they earn, first, to feed their families.\u00a0Second, they educate their children. A generation of educated young adults can find solutions to today\u2019s exigencies. Charcoal selling, like rock crushing, is a necessary step in Liberia\u2019s evolution back to prosperity.\u00a0It can\u2019t get there if people can\u2019t eat and can\u2019t learn.\u00a0 The selling of charcoal, therefore, is a necessary evil in Liberia today.\u00a0The FFW is empowering the women of Liberia to earn money now so that their future is not dependant on coal or foreign aid.<\/p>\n<p>Up next &#8211; We will meet the women who traveled from all across Liberia to attend\u00a0leadership training and\u00a0a Women\u2019s Leadership Conference put on by FFW!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Phil is in Liberia documenting the work of\u00a0Foundation for Women\u00a0(FFW), an organization that strives to continually support and encourage impoverished women, both globally and locally, by funding and creating microcredit programs. A longtime supporter of Phil and his work, Kevin Castner is traveling with him and reporting back to us from the field. The five&#8230;  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philborges.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/01\/can-charcoal-bring-a-liberia-out-of-poverty\/\" class=\"more-link\" title=\"Read Can Charcoal Bring a Liberia Out of Poverty?\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,22],"tags":[136,137,215,216,139],"class_list":["post-4642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-documentary-training","category-stirring-the-fire","tag-foundation-for-women","tag-from-the-field","tag-kevin-castner","tag-liberia","tag-microcredit"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Can Charcoal Bring a Liberia Out of Poverty? - Phil Borges<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.philborges.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/01\/can-charcoal-bring-a-liberia-out-of-poverty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can Charcoal Bring a Liberia Out of Poverty? - Phil Borges\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Phil is in Liberia documenting the work of\u00a0Foundation for Women\u00a0(FFW), an organization that strives to continually support and encourage impoverished women, both globally and locally, by funding and creating microcredit programs. 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