Clean Cookstoves Protect Women and the Environment
Sister Bridget Kokiambo rests a pot on top of three stones the size of bowling balls. She’s in the small, dark kitchen of Providence Home, a school and residence for those with disabilities in the Ugandan village of Nkokonjeru.
She points to the space in between the stones. That’s where the firewood goes.
“We make the fire so that it can burn and cook,” she says.
The inside walls are black with soot. “There is no pipe to take out the smoke,” she explains.
This is how nearly 3 billion people in the developing world cook their food and heat their homes, with dirty, inefficient stoves that billow smoke. They cause health problems – such as emphysema, heart disease, and lung cancer – for those who use them.
The black soot is also bad for the climate; it’s a greenhouse pollutant that helps warm the planet. And because these stoves are inefficient, they require a lot of firewood, which contributes to deforestation.
One solution that’s being promoted here and elsewhere is a cleaner cookstove.