How clean cookstoves are helping improve grades in Uganda | Complete article/video: The Charcoal Project, Dec 2013.
Three years ago The Charcoal Project was approached by a schoolmaster in Uganda looking for help to reduce the increasingly high cost of purchasing the woodfuel needed to cook the meals for his 600-plus boarding students.
Henry Twinemasiko, the school director and founder of the Rubaare Education Foundation, runs six schools in southwestern Uganda where he provides free or subsidized education to orphans and children of very poor families.
But when we met Henry, the combined cost of rising petrol and the increasing distances the schools beat-up truck had to travel to buy firewood (the district’s firewood supply having long been depleted), was forcing Henry to make painful choices between cutting scholarships for needy children and purchasing fuel to cook their meals.
Three years later, thanks to an array of generous donations, The Charcoal Project and Henry’s REF schools have come up with a solution that is gaining greater attention across the country: produce woodfuel substitute from agricultural waste and retrofit the schools with more energy efficient stoves. The result is that REF schools have reduced their fuel costs by around forty percent, making it possible for Henry to provide more scholarships and aid to more students.
An Intervention That Works
The TCP – REF model (which we call BEEP, for Biomass Energy Efficiency Project), is today being endorsed by groups like GVEP, which recently convened a gathering of school administrators, improved cookstove manufacturers, financial services providers, and government authorities. According to a recent item in GVEP’s newsletter:
A recent study commissioned by GVEP in (Uganda’s) Wakiso district shows that schools spend up to 400,000 UGX (US$158) per month on fuel for cooking meals and heating water, with urban schools spending twice this amount. This puts significant strain on parents, contributing to the financial pressure that causes some of them to withdraw their children from school prematurely.
Feedback from some of the schools that have adopted improved cookstoves says that the cost of buying firewood have decreased by 50%. Dr John Muyingo, minister was present at the event and praised GVEP for encouraging this initiative. In addition to saving money, the interviewed schools reported a considerable reduction in the amount of smoke in the kitchens, which results in a healthier environment for their employees. Furthermore, the time used for cooking is reduced significantly, resulting in students being able to attend their classes without the periodic meal interruptions caused by cooking delays.
