Rural Women find Solace in Fireless Cookers

By John Kamau
With environmentalists warning about Kenya's dwindling energy sources, the
use of fireless cookers in poor households is becoming the answer - a small
step that could save the countryside fuel sources in the east African nation
of 32 million people.
The fireless cookers - also nicknamed "Wonder Baskets" - are today spreading
rapidly on account of their saving in fuel, time, work and worry. They are
also eliminating both child labour used to collect firewood in rural Kenya
and indoor house pollution, which in is far above the World Health
Organisation (WHO) accepted limits.
Esther Wangechi Njuguna, 54, a resident of Kiambu district in Central Kenya
considers herself lucky to have a fireless cooker. "It saves me a lot of
troubles", she says as she demonstrates how the fireless cooker works.
A simple technology consisting of a hay box packed with good non-conductors
of heat, the fireless cooker has a lid consisting of the same non-conducting
material, which is easily closed so that the heat cannot escape. "With a
fireless cooker a pot of food that has been brought to a boil, will continue
to cook after being removed from its heat source", explains Wangechi.
At the moment Wangeci, who heada the Kiambu-based Mutukanio Women Group
hopes that they would get increased support to introduce clean cooking to
many homes.
Although the fireless cookers have been commercialised in developed
countries they are making an entry into rural Kenya via women groups that
are being trained by the National Agriculture and Livestock Extension
Program officers on how to use local materials and develop local technical
skills and knowledge.
Mutukanio Women Group brings together 28 women and has started making the
fireless cookers for their members. The idea has received support of the
Swedish International Agency for Development -funded Nalep whose extension
officers have trained the women group members on how to make the fireless
cookers and thus save energy.
"In the fireless cooker, there is no evaporation. All the goodness and
flavor of the food is retained by this slow and thorough mode of cooking",
says Wangechi, as her husband nods in agreement.
With the fireless cooker Wangechi is able to attend to other domestic
chores. "Unlike other cooking methods, a fireless cooker can never burn your
food. You attend to other duties without the slightest anxiety and when you
come back you will find it hot and ready".
The whole idea is in line with recommendations by the recent World Summit on
Sustainable Development, which inter alia called for an acceleration into
the introduction of green "environmentally friendly" energy.
During the conference Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of UNEP told the
audience that green energy must be put at the heart of sustainable
development if the threats of climate change and the need to tackle poverty
and ill health in the developing world are to be truly addressed. It has
also been realised that any development assistance must recognise that the
principal energy need of the poor remains cooking.
"The whole idea is to let rural women utilise time otherwise spent cooking
and let them know the economic benefits of using the fireless cooker",
explains Mwaura Kihanya, a Nalep extension officer in Kiambu.
Most fireless cookers are insulated with either clean rags, dried grass,
wood shavings, crumpled paper, cotton or blanket waste.
"It is a very effective supplement for fuelwood and an alternative to
charcoal used for cooking foods and heating water", says Gabriel Ndungu, a
Nalep extension officer in Kiambu.
Researchers in Zambia where fireless cookers have been promoted for some
time now say that the use of fireless cookers reduces fuelwood expenses by
50 percent, while improving health and nutrition of rural people. It is from
this Zambian success that Kenyans are copying.
Members of the Mutukanio women group say the fireless cookers help reduce
the long hours spent by mothers and children in their never-ending search
for firewood.
"The entire vision of this project is to create a better and safer
environment while preserving our natural resources", says Kihanya Mwaura, a
local Nalep extension officer. "We have recognised that both the urban and
rural poor needed a no cost and at best a low-cost fuel for their domestic
cooking".
Over the years researchers have found that the concept of conservation for
the sake of preserving the environment cannot be sold to the poor, as their
needs are survival. They new idea is to have them realse that charcoal and
firewood can have harmful effects and that an alternative source of "no" or
"low" cost energy for cooking is available.
"We managed this through regular demonstration and training of end-users",
says Mwaura Kihanya, a Nalep extension officer."Women within these
communities are in the key position to determine what will best work for
them", he says.
Researchers have shown that if the primary stakeholders are involved in the
design and implementation of development initiatives they are much more
likely to bring prolonged benefits, a theory now being implemented through
the Mutukanio Women Group.
The wonder baskets are selling at shillings 2,000 although they take
different forms. Environmental activists say that access to basic, clean
energy services is essential for sustainable development and poverty
eradication, and provides major benefits in the areas of health, literacy
and equity. However, in the world today over two billion people today have
no access to modern energy services
Most recently, a novel and inexpensive idea from Tanzania, is to dig a hole
in the soil, lining it with woven polyethylene from an opened maize or sugar
bag held in place with a ring of mud around the edge of the hole. All
heat-retained cookers are basically an insulated container holding a cooking
pot of food that has been brought to a boil previously on a wood fire, solar
cooker, fuel-efficient stove.
The challenge now is for the private sector to form partnerships with locals
and help promote this new energy wave catching up in rural Kenya (Rights
Features)