Every day, families across Kericho county, Kenya are risking their health just by getting up and cooking breakfast because their means of cooking is indoors over an open fire. The smoke they inhale leads to serious illness including childhood pneumonia, bronchitis, heart disease. Women & children are especially vulnerable. 3 hours is all the time it takes to turn this around with the installation of a smokeless cooking stove that extracts the smoke and burns more safely and efficiently.
80% of the Kenyan population depend on indoor open fires using wood and charcoal to cook their meals. Smoke from these fires causes chronic illness leading to over 21,000 deaths annually including 5,000 children. Girls miss out on school spending hours collecting wood. Cutting trees for fuel causes de-forestation and flooding leading to landslides and erosion. Wood smoke is contributing to climate change through emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and black carbon.
Our smokeless stoves are built with bricks, mud, sawdust, water, a tin chimney and most importantly - trained installers. This project will train men and women as installers of stoves using inexpensive materials that burn more efficiently using 2/3 less wood than open fires. We provide the stoves to vulnerable households and schools where children are fed during the day. Once trained, the installer can make a living installing stoves for households that have the means to pay for the service.
1,250 families live in healthier homes. Girls and women have better health, more time for school, community learning & income generating activities that give skills & opportunities to reduce poverty. More efficient stoves save money. 52 newly trained installers have skills to earn them an income. Materials used are locally available adding to the sustainability of the stove. As the stove burns more efficiently, impact on the environment is reduced using less wood & causing less emissions.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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