As part of an energy reduction project, ENA collaborated with experts from the Woreda District Energy Office to provide 18 villages with energy saving solar and Mirte stoves. This project has already proved to be life changing for over 80,000 direct and indirect recipients of the stoves.
ENA provided over 1,400 women with solar and Mirte stoves in their homes. These stoves function on either little or no fuel and are self-contained. These factors have proven to save families both time and money. Women can place food items in the solar stove cookware to be cooked by the sun for hours without the need for them to maintain a fire. The Mirte stove uses minimal fuel to cook food items that can’t be cooked with solar energy, thus giving women more free time. This extra time allows the women to leave the home, take children to school, fetch water, work in the fields, gain an education or work outside the home to provide more income to help support their families. Furthermore, these alternative energy stoves conduct heat remarkably well and can run all day on either sunlight or mere twigs which helps save families money and protect the already desolate environment. This region of Ethiopia called Woreda has been debilitated by deforestation, environmental degradation and drought.
The trainees were selected and trained from the villages with belief that they will return to their villages as examples and teach their respective communities via the village women’s associations and traditional community self help associations about the stoves. ENA believed that the concepts in the training sessions will be cascaded to all the community members using these model women and their local associations. Currently, the stoves are so popular and in such high demand that many of the stoves are being shared between households!
We are thrilled that these women are embracing this alternative energy technology and hope to see the use of these stoves continue to spread throughout the Woreda region!
Distribution of Solar and Mirte Stoves (pictured above)
Women attend training sessions on how to use their new energy efficient stoves in the home. In exchange for the stoves, they will educate other women in their villages on the benefits and functionality of the stoves.
Solar stove training
Production of Mirte Stove Training and installation in traditional Woreda village home.
Mirte stove in use.
This is a project that we are very excited to be a part of! We truly believe that these stoves can revolutionize the way women spend their valuable time and protect Africa’s beautiful landscape at the same time. With extra hours in the day, we can’t wait to see what these extraordinary women accomplish!!
To learn more about more of our life changing projects, visit our website!
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