High-Efficiency Stoves Improve Health and Save the Forests of Uganda

In partnership with the Adobe Foundation and International Lifeline Fund (ILF), Rudi and I documented ILF’s fuel-efficient stove program. ILF has set up production centers in Kampala and Lira, Uganda each with the capacity to produce more than 1,000 Okelo Kuc stoves each month. ILF has since fostered a vibrant commercial market for these stoves through an advertising campaign and the creation of a sales force of three dozen female micro-entrepreneurs. This program is building local capacity – creating jobs for skilled laborers and independent women vendors while, at the same time, improving the health and livelihoods of their customers. In an effort to address both the environmental and humanitarian problems associated with open fire cooking, ILF has distributed over 50,000 household fuel-efficient stoves to women who have been displaced by violence in Somalia, Darfur, Burundi, Kenya, Haiti and Northern Uganda since 2006.