Kaalo & Top Systems, Vink, and the Garoowe Technical College

Keeping Camel Milk Cool

Somalia is home to the world’s largest camel population. The herding of camels and other livestock are the livelihoods of nearly 60 percent of the people in Somalia. A particularly well-sought after product is camels’ milk. After Kaalo had successfully created a cooperative of nomadic camel famers which allowed the farmers to eliminate the middlemen who were taking advantage of their inability to travel to the cities more than 100 kilometres away to sell their milk, they came across a new problem: how could they prevent the milk from spoiling in these warm desert conditions?    

Kaalo found willing and capable partners to meet this challenge in Top Systems, Vink, and the Garoowe Technical College in Somalia. To free the farmers from the restraint imposed by the high temperatures, the new partnership aims to provide the cooperative with solar-powered cooling equipment that could be of use during the collection, transportation, and the selling of the milk. This would prevent spoiling and increase the farmers’ income even further. 

Whereas Kaalo will set up and manage this project, the technical college in Garowe will contribute to the project through the technical knowhow it has and which allows for the maintenance of the equipment and systems. The Dutch partners Top Systems and Vink have developed the cooling system which is sustainable and affordable and easy to maintain, even in desert conditions.  

John Limmen, advisor for Kaalo: “After we talked with Top Systems, we realised we had to adapt our focus. When I told the representative of Top Systems about our camel farmers and the problems they face, they told me that they had a potential solution for us.” 

By joining the Access to Modern Energy Programme, Kaalo looked externally to find new solution partners, and they succeeded. The project aims to deliver two mobile cooling tanks with a capacity of 500 litres, 100 metal milk containers, and a small truck and cooling system on site. In combination with the other innovations envisioned and implemented by Kaalo, the impact of all the projects together should increase the income of the nomadic camel farmers by a factor of somewhere between 8 to 12.  

Currently, the partners are gathering data and information about the demand and supply details, and they have also facilitated talks between key stakeholders from the companies involved. 

Abdisalam Ali from Kaalo already recognised the added value of the Human Accelerator Programme: “If we would not have participated in this programme, we would not have reached this phase so fast. I have learned a lot in our monthly Zoom meetings and in the many contact moments I had with the other participants. The regular basis on which we had our meetings and the consistent and strict challenges to articulate our ideas and objectives were very insightful. Overall, I thought the WANT – FIND – GET trajectory was very good and I am proud that we were part of this programme.” 

Innovation steps towards impact

Want

Transporting camel milk in warm desert conditions often leads to spoilage.

How can we make sure that nomadic camel farmers can keep their milk cooled throughout the entire supply chain in a sustainable way? 

Find

Top Systems, Vink, and the Technical College of Garoowe in Somalia

Kaalo found willing and capable partners to face this challenge with Top Systems, Vink, and the Technical College of Garoowe in Somalia

The new partnership aims to provide the cooperative with solar-powered cooling equipment that could be of use during the collection, transportation, and the selling of the milk.

Get

Two mobile cooling tanks with a capacity of 500 litres, 100 metal milk containers, and a small truck and cooling system on site.  

The impact of all the projects together should increase the income of the nomadic camel farmers with a factor of somewhere between 8 to 12. 

Scale

Increase the income of the nomadic camel farmers

The consistent and strict challenges and WANT – FIND – GET methodology helped Kaalo to answer questions they otherwise might not have considered.  

The many contact moments helped Kaalo and their partners to articulate their ideas and accelerating the step from the drawing board to reality.  

Movement for modern energy in humanitarian settings

Read the challenges of the Humanitarian Organisations involved in the Accelerator Programme. Would you like to share your energy stories, challenge or solutions? Submit it to our demand and supply platform, Source2Gather. We’re committed to matching today’s challenges with tomorrow’s solutions.

 

Access To Modern Energy Programme

The AME programme is about doing new things to solve problems and improve the quality of renewable energy access in humanitarian programmes around the world. Access to Modern Energy is increasingly recognized as an area of humanitarian concern. If communities affected by crises go without proper access to energy, it becomes impossible for them to meet the basic needs of life. The programme enables humanitarian organisations to be the catalysts for tackling specific energy challenges, whilst opening themselves up to receiving the knowledge and business insights from energy experts and private-sector partnerships. Ultimately, the projects will provide local insights for humanitarian partnerships to enable cost efficiency and improve quality of humanitarian work.  DCHI brings together humanitarian organisations, research and educational institutes, businesses of all sizes and governmental actors. The coalition enables them to jointly find, develop and scale innovative solutions. 

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