Global green awards’ 2008 finalists announced 

Ethiopia: refugees embrace sweet solution to deforestation and smoky cooking fires

Today, the world’s leading green energy prize announced that the Gaia Association, an organisation working with the UNHCR in the Kebribeyah refugee camp near Ethiopia’s border with Somalia, is one of the pioneering renewable energy projects from Africa, Asia and Latin America that will receive a prize of up to £20,000. Gaia Association will compete to be the Ashden Awards’ Energy Champion, with prize money of up to £40,000; the Champion will be revealed at a ceremony in London in June.

17,000 people live in the Kebribeyah refugee camp, having fled conflict in bordering Somalia. Fuelwood for cooking is a serious issue: gathering wood for cooking outside the camps is a lengthy business that puts women in physical danger; deforestation around the camp is so extensive that the government has banned cutting down trees; and cooking over open fires is unpleasant and causes numerous health hazards.

To address these problems, by the end of May 2008, the Gaia Association had supplied Swedish-designed, ethanol-fuelled stoves to all 1,780 refugee families in Kebribeyah refugee camp. The stoves enable clean, comfortable cooking and can reduce the fuel wood needed by each family by nearly four tonnes a year. The ethanol is produced from locally-available molasses, a by-product of the sugar industry, whose disposal previously caused water pollution, and local manufacture of the stoves is now underway.

Before the CleanCook stoves were available, most cooking was done on open fires or using simple wood-burning stoves made from clay. Women would often cook outdoors to avoid the smoke. Those who use the ethanol stoves find them simple and quick to use, and suitable for all the food they want to cook. There are fewer eye and respiratory problems, reduced risk of burns to women and children, and the women cooking do not get so hot – a considerable benefit when drinking water is in short supply. Food does not taste of smoke, and the pans and clothes stay cleaner.

The value of the stoves goes far beyond the environmental and convenience factors, particularly for women. Their daughters can go to school, instead of spending up to eight hours a day gathering firewood. And, as a member of the Refugee Women’s Committee in the camp remarked:

“I gave my stove to my daughter when she got married, so that she would not have to face the dangers of going out to gather firewood.”