Smokeless stoves saving lives in 1,250 households

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.