15 February 2007

Fuel-Efficient Stoves Reduce Risk for People in Sudan Camps

Partnership for a Better Life

 

In North Darfur, at least one woman per family spends eight or more hours a day searching for firewood. USAID has helped organize "firewood patrols" and is working with the African Union and local communities to enhance protection. (© AP Images)

In North Darfur, at least one woman per family spends eight or more hours a day searching for firewood. (© AP Images)

Nearly 2 million Sudanese, driven from their homes by violence, now live in densely populated clusters of camps spread throughout Sudan’s western Darfur region.

One of their greatest needs is firewood to cook food (some of which they can sell for income), boil water and heat their homes. But most of Darfur is arid, and aggressive wood harvesting has desolated much of the environment nearby.

In addition, residents -- often women and girls -- who leave the relative safety of the camps to gather wood face the risk of violent attack. In North Darfur, more than 90 percent of families are believed to have at least one female family member who spends eight hours or more a day, five days a week, collecting firewood.

In response, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) began encouraging organized, escorted "firewood patrols" and is working with the African Union and local communities to enhance protection.

USAID also is promoting the production and use of fuel-efficient stoves in Darfur’s camps to reduce the need for firewood and the risk involved in gathering it. The U.S. agency and its local partners are teaching women how to build and use fuel-efficient stoves and pass their skills along to other women in the camps. Fuel-efficient stoves manufactured in camps cost less than $3 each and are constructed from local materials, including clay, sorghum stems, dung, aluminum and water.

Fuel-efficient stoves can cook the same amount of food in half the time, consuming less than half the fuel. Some stoves need only 20 percent as much fuel as traditional stoves. The stoves also produce significantly less smoke and ash, reducing health threats to families.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)