Organization
Oikosfonden
Mission
The main objective of Oikos Fonden is to support small development projects, mainly in Africa. The stoves project has received donations from Fonden. I am a board member and editor of the organisation’s website, www.oikosfonden.dk. Our chairman personally is involved in this project. A contributor to the Foundation is monitoring our programme in Tanzania where trained stove makers – have started selling the stoves in their communities.
Organizational Expertise
Adoption / Behavior Change, Capacity Building, Climate/Environment, Finance / Investment, Gender / Womens Empowerment, Health, Marketing, Monitoring and Evaluation
Technologies & Fuels
Biomass (Ag. Residue, Processed Biomass, etc.), Charcoal, Wood
Clean Cooking Activities
Our activities are village-based: Our local partners go to the village and teach a selected group , mainly women, but also mixed groups how to make the stove for firewood. The stove course takes two days. The first day the villagers learn how to assemble and use the moulds (sewage tubes), and to calculate and weigh the crushed local burnt bricks. This granulate is mixed with cement and poured into the moulds: one for the combustion chamber, one for the chimney block, and one for the two pieces of chimney. One piece is used horizontally to connect the combustion chamber inside the kitchen with the chimney block outside (a hole is made in the wall). The other chimney is placed on top of the chimney block. The second day the moulds are made ready for renewed use. The instructor returns after ten days to show how to install the stove and to discuss with the group a way forward. Now, we are testing a business model where groups of VSLA-members are provided with cement, one bag for each group, which is sufficient to make six stoves, i.e. one for each group member. The burnt bricks the members themselves have to find or pay for. The group then gets an extra three bags of cement for making stoves for sale. Cement for making additional stoves the groups pays for itself.
A youth group in Nairobi is trying to find out they can make money from selling our charcoal stove.
Partnership
On our website www.improvedstovesandchimney.com we have described in detail (drawings and photos), all processes related to making the moulds and casting the different parts of the stoves. It is possible, therefore, for other organisations to make the moulds and start producing the stoves themselves, be it a stove for burning firewood or charcoal. We are of course also prepared to share our experiences with the business model described above and to learn from others how to improve the acceptance of the stoves in the communities where our partners are trying to create a commercial market for our stoves among poor people. Our approach to the dissemination of the stoves is through grass root ownership to the project with small means. What experiences do others have with such an approach? Working with such a decentralised concept, how can we scale up production and sales?
Regions Operating In
Sub-Saharan Africa
Country Based In
Denmark
Address
Oikosfonden Nørregade 6, 1.
Copenhagen, 1165 København K
Website
Primary Point of Contact
Name: Mr. Esben Rojel
Title: Project leader
Email: esbenrojel@gmail.com
Phone: +29924680
Secondary Point of Contact
Name: Mr. Flemming Kramp
Title: Chairman - Oikos Fonden
Email: f.kramp@mail.tele.dk
Phone: +4555456082
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