Smokeless stoves saving lives in 1,250 households

Thank you for your support of this project. This update comes from Beatrice Wambia, Senior Field Officer with our Health Programme.

"The Smokeless Stoves programme has great impact in households across Kericho County. Through the programme women are able to cook with much ease and without coughing or even crying out of the smoke from the traditional cooking stove i.e. the 3 stone stove. The traditional 3 stone fires used in many households in rural areas of developing countries are inefficient in transforming the wood into heat to cook food and therefore it’s a major source of household air pollution.

In rural areas women and girls spend many hours of the week gathering firewood in the forest. This means girls and women have to walk for longer distances to collect firewood. This poses a risk to young girls to drop out of school and some of them might be at risk of being raped while in the forest.

The smokeless stove has several advantages both to the community and even to the girls and mothers from the rural parts of the communities. The smokeless stove uses less firewood compared to the traditional cooking methods. With the smokeless stove there is no smoke while cooking. The cooking environment is clean and the stove saves the cooking time. With all these girls will have time to attend school, there is reduced deforestation, there is improved health condition of the women and girls who uses the stove and reduced global climate change.

This message is from Wycliffe Kipkoech ‘I wish to take this opportunity to thank Brighter Communities Worldwide for installing this smokeless stove in my household. The presence of this stove has increased the participation of people willing to cook using the stove. Everybody is happy using this stove because there is no smoke at all. It cooks faster compared to the previous stove and the kitchen is cleaner now unlike the previous stove where firewood was all over the kitchen, My mother no longer suffers from irritating eyes while cooking. Thank you Brighter Communities worldwide. Asante Sana'

This message is from Grace Chepkurui from Kongasis village, ‘Thank you brighter communities Worldwide for installing a smokeless stove in my kitchen. This stove cooks faster, there is no smoke in my kitchen and it’s now clean, this stove is safe for my grandchildren to use, I am not worried that they might get burnt while cooking with this stove.'

And Robert Kirui says - ‘Am very happy to have this smokeless stove in my kitchen, seeing the smoke out through the chimney means my kitchen will remain clean after painting and my wife and children will no longer cry while cooking. Asante sana Brighter Communities Worldwide for helping me have this wonderful smokeless stove'.                               

Promoting rhe smokeless stove programme in communities will lead to healthier and more resilient communities. The programme plays an important role in dealing with climate change effects. Let’s put resources  together as stakeholders to ensure healthier, cleaner more resilient communities in Kericho County.  Thank you for your support."

Thank you for supporting this project to provide a smoke free cooking enviroment for the communities we work with in Kenya.  This update captures the experience of 2 volunteers from Ireland, Edith & Helen, who were involved in installing smokeless stoves last month. Harambee is the swahili word for 'working together' and this is the name given to overseas volunteer projects.

In June of 2024, the Harambee team of 18 volunteers set out to Kenya to help deliver the programmes Brighter Communities Worldwide has on offer. Many volunteers took part in the installation of smokeless stoves and saw first hand the impacts of a smoke-free cooking environment. 

Edith, a first-time volunteer described her experience by saying “We set out in the truck, my colleagues and I, to a remote village from which BCW had received requests for stoves. Many houses, more so huts, had makeshift stoves with no flue/chimney to allow the smoke from the stove to escape to the outside resulting in the huts being continuously filled with smoke, and thus the children and adults suffering from serious chest conditions.” 

“Mud, straw and cement had been mixed and a local woman was adding water and mixing it all together using her bare feet. Nancy, the head stove installer, picked up her machete and sliced a brick as if slicing butter. We assembled the bricks and mortar as instructed and once the stove had been made to Nancys approving nod, George proceeded to hop up onto the tin roof and cut a hole for the flue to exit the hut. The lady of the home had found a plastic bag and chicken wire that George used to secure the flue in place followed by a small amount of cement to complete the job. I watched as George put the final touches to the flue and at the same time saw smoke emerging from the top of the flue. I went back into the hut and the lady of the house had already lit the stove and was boing water to prepare lunch for the children. ”

Helen, another first-time volunteer, claimed “The highlight of my time in Keyna as a volunteer recently with Brighter Communities Worldwide has to be building the stoves. The cost-effective local bricks combined with mud and the skill and enthusiasm of the ladies and gents building them was awe-inspiring. A tin pipe, as a chimney, is installed into the stove and it extracts the smoke. I always breathed a sigh of relief when the smoke came out the pipe when I was involved in the construction!

“We were in the heart of the rural communities and the people were allowing us into an intimate part of their lives, into their homes and kitchens and I appreciated that.  I always used the few words of Swahili I had and a few times we were able to sit down afterwards with the household present... In a nutshell I would say Small Stove, Big Impact.”

As the volunteers witnessed the stoves they constructed being used, many exclaimed they could already see what an impact the smokeless cooking environment had on the beneficiary households. 

Edith went on to say “The warmth and appreciation from the lady of the house was humbling given how little we had done yet would make such a difference to her family and their wellbeing. We said our goodbyes, gathered up our other flues and headed down the road to the next hut followed by the local children happy to keep us company on our journey."

Thank you to Edith & Helen for your support and solidarity.