Clinton Tells African Leaders Economies Would Fail Without Women’s Toil
“To help improve women’s lot, the top U.S. diplomat has thrown her weight behind the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, even recruiting Hollywood star Julia Roberts to join the cause, and pushed for setting up telephone hotlines or text messaging services to far-away authorities that can help rape victims in places such as Democratic Republic of Congo report crimes committed far from urban centers.”
The U.S. last September committed $50.8 million, about 80 percent of the funds raised so far, to bring clean-burning stoves to homes in poor villages in places such as Africa.”
Inhaling smoke from poorly ventilated stoves is linked to lung cancer and respiratory infections such as pneumonia and leads to the early deaths of more than 2 million people a year, according to the UN Foundation. The stoves are also more efficient, which means users don’t need to go miles looking for wood, risking attacks in dangerous areas.”
In conflict zones such as Darfur, women and girls have been attacked while spending hours foraging for firewood.”
Awa Coulibaly, a mother of seven in Mali, said she saves about $150 a year in fuel costs from trading her old stove for a more efficient cook stove that emits less smoke and doesn’t cause skin burns, according to Erik Wurster of E+Co, a nonprofit company based in Bloomfield, New Jersey, that invests in clean energy projects in Africa.”