Smokeless stoves saving lives in 1,250 households

Thank you so much for your support of this project. Just half a day, some bricks, mud, sawdust, water, a chimney and a trained installer and households are transformed with smokeless cooking stoves.

Earlier this month a visitor from Ireland tried her hand at stove installing.  Denise is a student of International Development at University College Cork, on placement with Brighter Communities Worldwide.  On a visit to Kenya, she tagged along with staff member Beatrice, stove installer Rehema and a local community health volunteer for a day to help with stove installations.  

Here is Denise’s account of the day.  “ We collected the chimneys needed from the office and took them with us to walk to the households preparing for stove installations.  The families had removed the open fires they had been using, prepared the area and provided bricks, mud and sawdust before we arrived.  Rehema began by measuring out the floor area and the height of the stove.  I helped soak the bricks in water and carry them into the house.  Rehema put them in place and explained the structure of the stove and how it works.

Meanwhile, outside the mother of the house was preparing mud using soil from the garden and mixing with water to create a mud like clay.  This was the mortar we used between the bricks and also used to smear the outside when the structure was finished.  Each stove is made to measure to fit the sufria, large saucepan, the family use for cooking.  If cracks appear over time, the mother of the house was shown how to fix them using more mud to fill them in.

The walls inside were blackened by smoke and the smell of smoke was really strong.    When the chimney was put into place, some sticks and papers were lit in the stove to check the chimney was ‘drafting’ properly.  We all went outside to look up at the roof and as soon as smoke appeared from the chimney there was singing and dancing in celebration.

We installed 2 stoves with Rehema that day.  The mother in the first house had 5 children and her husband is living with a disability.  She said she loves the stove because it keeps the smoke away.  She was very excited to show her neighbours and she thanks Brighter Communities Worldwide for making this life changing event happen for her and her family. The mother living in the second house was a widow and she had taken one of her children to the hospital so we didn’t meet them”.

Links:

• Video record of Denise's stove installation