This rapid and wide-spread deforestation is caused, in large part, by the fact that 80% of sub-Saharan Africa’ s population relies on solid biomass fuels for cooking – primarily wood and charcoal. The human costs of this cooking method are staggering and include:
- Depressed living standards: a typical female villager will spend approximately one third of her time collecting wood and cooking
- Sexual violence: in insecure regions like Darfur, collection of firewood is the single greatest risk factor forrape.
- Respiratory disease: indoor air pollution resulting from open fire cooking is responsible for 300,000 to 500,000 premature deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa each year.
To find out how Lifeline is addressing these and other problems associated with open fire cooking, click on one of the links below.
Household and Institutional Fuel – Efficient Stove Program
In an effort to address both the environmental and humanitarian problems associated with open fire cooking, Lifeline has distributed over 50,000 household fuel-efficient stoves to women who have been displaced by violence in Somalia, Darfur, Burundi, Kenya, Haiti and Northern Uganda since 2006.
When ILF first began promoting clean cooking in 2006 it distributed insulated clay stoves made entirely from locally available organic materials. At a cost of as little as $2 or $3 each, these stoves can reduce the amount of wood needed for cooking by up to 50% and can reduce smoke emissions by even greater amounts.
Since 2006, ILF has expanded its stove-making capacity and through the development of affordable, portable, and metallic charcoal-burning stoves.
Lifeline has been helping to foster a vibrant commercial market for the production and sale of of the Okelo Kuc in Uganda and will soon pilot a similar program with the ZPB in Haiti.
In addition to its household stove program, Lifeline has been distributing larger institutional stoves for use in schools, hospitals and other public establishments.
In Haiti, Lifeline has been distributing a stove that is fueled by paper-waste briquettes, completely eliminating the need for costly charcoal. Lifeline has outfitted 27 schools with 100 of these stoves.
In one of these schools alone, the savings have amounted to $400 in charcoal and 11,000 pounds of firewood per month.
In Uganda, Lifeline has been helping to foster a vibrant commercial market for the production and sale of fuel-efficient stoves. Click below to find out more about this
effort.
Woodless Kiln Program
The use of wood burning kilns to produce bricks is a significant source of deforestation throughout the developing world.
To address this issue, Lifeline has been firing the bricks that its uses for its rocket stove in kilns that are powered by rice husk. Lifeline is planning to embark on a training program to teach this woodless kiln technology to brick makers in Uganda.
In addition to reducing deforestation, this brick production method will improve livelihoods for brick makers by reducing their costs and improve housing stock by enabling them to create cheaper and better quality bricks.
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