Clean Burning Cookstoves in Gulu, Uganda | 2017

World Centric + Aid Africa

$17,745.00 from profits from fiscal year 2017
Carbon Offsets Project

Over 3 billion people still cook using traditional stoves fueled by kerosene, biomass (wood, animal dung and crop waste) and/or coal. Each year, close to 4 million people die from illness attributed to household air pollution from stoves. In Uganda, 94% of rural households cook over an open fire. Meal preparation also has a large impact on the social development of women and children, as it is their responsibility to maintain the fires and collect firewood - time that could be spent in school or within the safety of the community.

The Project

1,500 fuel-efficient, low-carbon-emission stoves for households in the rural communities around Gulu, Uganda, benefitting more than 5,500 people.

Indirect impacts:

• Health improvements from reducing smoke inhalation.
• Less time spent gathering fuel reduces the chance of rape for women.
• Less time spent gathering fuel and cooking allows women more control over how their time is spent.
• Environmental improvements by slowing the rate of deforestation.

The Approach

Aid Africa’s “Rocket Stoves” are a very simple design utilizing 6 bricks formed completely from local materials. The bricks act as insulation, keeping the fire very hot so that the fuel is burned up completely. This produces very little smoke, as smoke is unburned fuel. The Rocket Stove was designed by a collective of engineers and improved over the years to be very inexpensive, easy to produce and repair, and accessible to most people. The stove uses 46% less fuel for cooking than an open fire and produces 75% less emissions. Each stove removes 2.4 tons of carbon from the air.

Aid Africa teaches communities how to construct the stoves; including digging the clay and forming the bricks. They train the community on how to use them and help install them in households.

About Aid Africa

A World Centric partner since 2017.

Aid Africa is working to bring help and hope to the poorest of the poor in Uganda. Their vision is to rebuild 1,000 sustainable communities by providing clean water, efficient and cleaner-burning stoves, farming and reforestation, and other household necessities.

Aid Africa’s first project took place in 2005, after founder Ken Goyer had visited Uganda to teach more efficient cooking methods and realized the urgent need for support services in IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camps. He started by building Rocket Stoves. In 2009, the Ugandan government closed the camps, forcing tens of thousands of people back to rural villages in complete poverty. Aid Africa adapted to the new situation and began providing a community-based approach to providing efficient cookstoves, clean water, and healthcare access in villages, while also planting trees.

More projects with Aid Africa:

• Clean Water in Gulu, Uganda
• Tree Planting in Gulu, Uganda

Updates

November 2018

Aid Africa has completed the distribution of all 1,500 stoves. Recipient Agnes Angee said: “The stove has changed my family’s lives. My children find food on the table at lunch. I have never had problem of burns. My kitchen is free from smoke and the stove is very friendly. Even when you are cooking, the house remains cool yet there is a fire on stove and it is cooking."

Aid Africa staff and volunteers make regular visits to the communities, tracking every stove at household levels to ensure they are correctly installed, in use, and in good condition.