5 miles = a girl's average walk to gather cooking fuel
Women and children – mostly girl children – supply the household cooking fires with wood in many countries, like Eritrea and South Africa.
‘I must walk five miles before I can begin cooking.’
The average household burns 3.6 tons of wood a year. It is gathered by the hands and arms of women and children. Wood smoke causes many breathing and heart diseases, especially for vulnerable infants and children.
Thanks to SCI supporters and Tanzanian collaborator Sperancea Gabone, women in rural Tanzania save 2 bundles of firewood per week, each.
Ms. Gabone has taught thousands of Tanzanians about solar cooking and distributes solar cooker technologies to women in surrounding villages. She is using the SCI Solar Cooking Adoption and Impact Survey, to track fuel use and savings with solar cooking.
With solar cooking, women report they are healthier.
And they save money too: as much as 35% of their fuel expenses.
When a good change in cooking practices saves money and fuel, more communities are choosing solar cooking to help themselves build more resilience.
100% of these women recommend solar cooking to a friend
With your help, Ms. Gabone is learning to make solar cooker distribution in her community more financially sustainable. Solar cookers are available when neighbors want to save money, improve their health, and save drudgery by cooking with solar energy – a lifesaving choice.
SCI supporters enabled Ms. Gabone to get training from an Ugandan solar cooking collaborator with a successful solar cooking business, to see what aspects of his work she could incorporate into her own. SCI donors empower solar cooking partners with knowledge, opportunities, resources, and connections to make solar a clean, sustainable cooking solution.
You can help grow solar cooking to meet the demand of 2.4 billion people cooking with polluting fuels with a gift to SCI
"On behalf of the Macedonia Ministry and the community of Rau, I would like to thank you, SCI...and friends who have contributed to make sure that the Rau community has solar cookers." – Ms. Sperancea Gabone, Project Manager