
Cook up: The clean stoves use less fuel and allow people to cook more quickly
After learning how to construct simple, energy efficient stoves, Phoebe has saved time and money and earns an income
Connie Akware
According to the International Energy Agency, more than 900-million Africans rely on unclean cooking solutions and nearly four in five cook over open fires or on traditional stoves which use polluting fuels such as wood, charcoal or animal dung.
Cooking this way is a leading source of carbon emissions and kills about four million people each year as they inhale smoke and fumes.
At the Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa, held in Paris on 14 May, the IEA and delegates from 55 countries came together with the “shared objective of making 2024 a pivotal year for achieving universal access to clean cooking”.
Better stoves
ForAfrika shares in this vision and has introduced new stoves, designed to cook more cleanly and swiftly, to communities in South Sudan and Uganda.
Refugee households in Uganda predominantly use firewood and charcoal for cooking. Besides the negative health and environmental effects, households are also spending about 22% of their monthly income on fuel.
Phoebe Yeno, who arrived at the Imvepi Refugee Settlement from South Sudan in 2017, was so impressed after attending a training session conducted by ForAfrika, that she constructed her own stove at home and is now training others to do the same.
“I would take a lot of time preparing food and sometimes my children would have to go to sleep without eating. But these days, even when the children return from school late, it takes just a few hours to have the meal ready,” she says. “There is also a lot less smoke.”
The new stoves, which have two rounded concrete fire pits, use less wood to produce the heat necessary to cook meals. Although the stoves are still not as clean as gas or electric appliances, they are vast improvement.
Money spinner
Phoebe has been able to earn money through her teaching and construction efforts: “I am paid 20,000 shillings ($5) per stove constructed. Since I began constructing these facilities for people within the settlement, which includes both refugees and the host community, I have managed to earn about $259 in the past year. This money has greatly helped me to pay school fees for my children and also provide basic needs for all my dependants. I plan to start constructing portable cooking stoves which I will be able to sell to a number of people who have discovered the benefits of the improved cooking stoves.
Additionally, the family has saved money on fuel. Previously, the family of nine would use a stack of firewood worth 8,000 Ugandan shillings ($2) over three days. Now the same stack lasts two weeks. According to Phoebe, this has been a boost to the family’s financial status.
“I no longer feel the burden of purchasing other things for the home,” she said. “Thank you so much ForAfrika for the training,” she says gratefully.
Connie Akware in Monitoring and Evaluation Officer in Uganda