Our mission

Maman Dungu priority plan 2020-2025 envisions a modern community that enjoys access to renewable energy (e-Hubs) and clean drinking water. (Water Treatment Center)

Maman Dungu Foundation promotes actively the education and skills of villagers, farmers, young devoted boys, and girls co-creating the transition to a green economy in Dungu.

We target 4 integrated eco transition programs, for our region, ultimately delivering impact on the Sustainable Development Goals. (SDG)

1. Renewable energy for all (e-Hubs 4all)

Current household energy sources in Dungu – Garamba are wood and charcoal (97%).

Diesel and gasoline generators are responsible for 10% of lighting, Sun panels, introduced in 2014, provide approximately 5% power, the Petroleum lamp 3%.

Most families do not have access to electricity and use wood and charcoal for cooking. Fuels such as gasoline, diesel, kerosene are imported. Such an enduring disastrous situation does not promote sustainable development. But on the contrary, such poverty contributes substantially to global warming. The effects of the rapid progression of the desert waging from Sudan are hard felt in the Dungu-Garamba area.

While this climate change is happening, the most vulnerable group of population is our youth who have no skills, no means to take control of their lives, their destiny.

1.1. Actions 2020 -2022: Installing “e-Hubs 4all”

15 kVA Micro Solar and Hydro Power Units

Maman Dungu will start to install Micro Solar & Hydropower stations in following sites:

• High Institute for Clean Technology (H.I.C.T.) Training and Education Center
• Intercultural Dialogue Center
• DUNGU-UYE Dispensaries
• DUNGU General Hospital
• Office Fondation Maman Aninyesi

Revenues are reinvested in scaling up “e-Hubs4all” and carbon finance will be the source to build in 2021-2022 a Small HydroPower station on the MAYA in the northeast of Dungu (6 km)

Small Hydro: extends between 1 and 15megawatts (MW)

Micro Hydro: <100kW

1.2. E-Hub training: Solar & Hydro Micro Power Station techniques & storage

Maman Dungu elaborates in cooperation with EELAB UGent, a specific e-HUB- training program learning solar & hydro Power Station techniques/ BE/FCH storage applications, e-power train systems for in 2022 planned HydraCat river shuttles.

Installation methods of PV – Arrays & Hydro Power Turbines, and grid network

This DUNGU Training and Education Center has 4 missions:

• Form qualitative and skilled local technicians and engineers;
• Working with knowledge centers and universities, facilitating links between climate experts and local students and leaders.
• Create network support for partnership and mobilization of resources and revenues.
• Create Green business opportunities.

1.3. Accelerated Literacy School (A.L.S.)

Only 30 % of girls complete successfully the primary school and 18% complete secondary school in the Dungu–Garamba area.

To support sustainable development and green entrepreneurship most especially among women, we train local communities in basic grammar and mathematics and sustainable farming.

1.4. Green Business and circular economy; Cocoa Charter

The “e-Hubs” in Dungu opens new perspectives for entrepreneurship.

Maman Dungu endeavors to build peeling machines (décortiquese) to peel and pack the rice.

Because many rivers flow through the city of Dungu (Dungu, Kibali, Uélé), a lot of fish can also be picked up.

A cold depot will be built so that fish can be stored and traded. Commercialization and deliveries to Isiro, Bunia, Kisangani, Kinshasa, Yambio in southern Sudan, Central Africa, Arua in Uganda will be launched.

Based on the Cocoa charter we expect to expand in 2021 the export of the Cocoa to Europe.

2. Clean drinking water & sanitation

2.1. The Context

The 350,000 people of Dungu have no access to clean drinking water.

The savage deforestation and climate change of the last decades have exacerbated the problem. Most of the sources of drinking water in Dungu have dried up and many people have been on their way in search of drinking water. The poor and unclean quality of the rivers Dungu, Kibali, Uélé, causes transmissible diseases such as diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid, and cholera.

Easy access to clean drinking water enables a new life: protection against disease and more education, as fewer sick days are missed at school.

2.2. Action: Dungu Water Treatment Center /e-Pumps

Maman Dungu will build a “Water Treatment Center” for 250,000 residents in a region measuring 5 square kilometers.

Required water: 15 000 cubic meters per day

The solar pumps will be installed in remote areas and villages.

Because they are designed to pump water from a depth of up to 100 m without additional operating costs (solar energy) even on cloudy days.

They are for low maintenance and can be easily installed on-site with local expertise.

3. Sedentary Agriculture hand in hand with Reforestation

The COCOA Charter “ Beyond Chocolate” will unlock new techniques and fair trade for small farmers

3.1. Context

Cocoa can be grown in the forest without destroying it, offering small farmers a way to earn a living without degrading the environment.

Poverty and increasing deforestation of the mature rainforest constitute one of the problems connected to agriculture in the Dungu – Garamba areas.

D.R.Congo has all the necessary assets to become a major producer of cocoa.

There are a small number of countries that produce cocoa (Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Cameroon) while the cocoa tree is very sensitive to the severe drought (West Africa) except to Brasilia, Indonesia, etc.

According to the scientists, the elevated temperatures, together with global warming, are the reason that the cocoa trees have to fight to get enough water during their growth period.

The soil in the D.R C. is usually very deep and well ventilated, more fertile than the soil in the countries of West Africa where the need for fertilizers, has become indispensable to obtain a satisfactory result.

3.2. Action: Reactivate and restore the (traditional) Cocoa farming

the Cocoa Charter « beyond chocolate » as a tool.

Training and educate planters in sustainable farming and delicate cocoa planting care.

Informing small farmers on how they can recover their land and produce the maximum yields through access to high-quality, affordable, and carbon-negative organic fertilizer. They will yield wild product range all-natural chemical-free.

Raise awareness among the local population against deforestation and in search of fertile land.

The Cocoa charter beyond chocolate “aromatizes" peace in the Dungu area

Farming Cocoa in the Dungu area goes hand in hand with the quest for peace.

It is a Revival of hope after so many years of misery, violence, and conflict.

Reconciling people with the earth, with themselves (confidence in the future, improving well-being, self-esteem)

La Dungulaise: the shared Cocoa plantation concept; rent or lease a Cocoa plot (5ha)

Shared land ownership between Cocoa planters & Chocolatiers

The objective is a partnership between Belgian chocolatiers and local small Cocoa farmers in the Dungu-Garamba area. Beyond Chocolate, a partnership for a sustainable Belgian Chocolate Industry.

The concept of the Dungulaise is a shared Cocoa plantation ownership, duration of 25 years, revolving, assured by Credendo (www.credendo.com).

This ensures the sharing stakeholders no risk, the right to exploit the Cocoa plantation and harvest a first quality product.

The “shared Cocoa plantation” is ensured by the traditional and administrative authorities and defacto organized by Maman Dungu.

Now, 100 m2 = 1000 €, official documents = 2500 € / 1 ha Partnership with the INERA station of Yangambi (Kisangani) whose selected plants can produce a production of 2 tons per hectare (compared to 500 kilograms per hectare).

Avoiding the old dispute about the price on the market by immediately improving the life of the farmer and his family (example of Esco in Kivu).

This Cocoa charter improves farmer’s engagement, reduces operational risk and achieves profitable scale in smallholder inclusive business models and it also entails the improvement of the quality of the cocoa.

Academic partners to validate the product of cocoa planting, and ensure that the nuts and all other data can be used by chocolatiers in Europe.