By Michael Wanyama | Team leader - Autosafety Uganda Program
After almost 2 years of striving to acquire vehicle emissions data collection equipment, earlier this month we were previleged to receive support from a UK-based Margaret Hayman Cahritable Trust that footed costs for shipping and storage of a 5-gas exhaust analyser with a chassis dynamoemeter.
The equipement was donated to us in mid 2020 by a Texas-based wellwisher with whom we unfortulately lost contact, feared to have passed on a few weeks after he cordinated us with the property management company which had the equipment in storage.
With help from a US-based Volunteer and the Houston Ugandan Community, a separate fundraiser was set up to raise funds to cater for crating and movement of the equimpent from the property manager's warehouse to the port of Houston ready for dispatch to Kampala via Mombasa, Kenya port. Several individuals contributed genereously and we managed to move it to another warehouse near the port of Houston; however we did not hit our target so it stayed in storage for a long time that whatever was being raised would instead account for storage.
We were at the verge of giving up on the equipment because we had many conflicting priorities as a startup nonprofit.
Our winning of the 2022 ITF award for deacrbonising Transport in Emerging economies earlier this year has greatily helped us to stay upfloat over the past few months as well as giving us access to more specified tools. The award came with a great deal of supportive visibility as well and now that we have finally been enabled to have our long desired equipment, in the next few months we will be advancing our project with solid data collection that will help refine the community-based workshops as well as engagement with policy.
On Friday 30th September, we are holding a refresher training with over 100 mechanics from the groups we had already engaged with a theme on the functionality of Catalytic converters as key components in containing or reducing vehicular emissions and how to maintain and enhance their integrity.
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