SUSTAINABLE COOKERY

Ordinary people in Tanzania cook either on wood fires (in the country districts) or on charcoal stoves (mainly in towns).  This leads to deforestation and ever increasing fuel costs.  Much of the heat goes to waste.
 In fine weather cooking is done outside;   on rainy days it is done inside and the house fills with smoke (below).  Very few houses have chimneys.   This leads to TB and other respiratory diseases. Left: cooking school dinners in an open shed.
Some of the more enlightened people use clay stoves (below) which are easier to work with and use less than half the fuel.  However, in places people have tried to make them with the wrong sort of clay (materials must be fireproof!) and have become discouraged.
Our first task was to find somebody who knows how to make clay stoves using the proper fireproof materials. We have done that and he has reconstructed the cooker at the Duga Old Folks' Home. Our next will be to persuade people that they need these stoves.
Solar cooking is the most efficient. This cooker (right) is made with three cardboard boxes, a sheet of glass and some aluminium foil. It boils a litre of water in 20 minutes - when the sun shines. African ladies normally cook in the early evening, after sunset. Using solar cookers means changing the habits of a lifetime.