Kilibasi is about 514 kilometers from Nairobi and is located in Kinango District in Coast Province. It takes a minimum of seven (7) hours to drive there from Nairobi. The region is sparsely populated and the main economic activity is charcoal burning. Some community members tried to keep livestock in the area but due to aridity, this activity has proved unprofitable. Crop farming is the least popular activity due to poor rainfall and elephant and baboon attacks. However there are efforts to engage the community in eco-tourism.

At Kilibasi Primary School, there is a School Feeding Program (SFP) initiated by the Kenya Government. Food is an incentive to keep children in school as for most of them, the meal they eat there is the only food they will have for the day. On a day when food at school is guaranteed, the student population is 500 children aged between 4 to 13 years. This drops to 150 children on days when there is no food in school. This food is usually crushed maize, or wheat and some peas. These are usually boiled and when cooked served to the children starting with those in lower primary. Needless to say both the quantity and quality of this food is poor but it is better than nothing.

Firewood is the main cooking fuel in this region and each child is required to carry some as they report in the morning as a contribution to the fuel that will be used for the day. The 30 solar cookits as well as utensils donated, upgraded the kitchen and made it possible to cook more food cheaply. It also reduced the man hours required to watch over food as it cooks. Over time the school’s administration has succeeded to raise funds to hire a cook. Previously girls from the standard 6 class would leave vital lessons to cook for the other students in the school. The administration had tried to get parents to take turns to cook but their unreliability left no choice but to engage the children to cook for themselves. However with the solar cookits, the food is set in the sun at about 8a.m and by noon it is ready to eat. There is no need for the girls to sacrifice crucial lessons, in the unfortunate event that the school’s administration runs out of funds again.

Majority of the parents present during this demonstration did not know that solar energy could be used for cooking and in a simple and affordable manner. Firewood and charcoal emit a lot of smoke and soot which is a health hazard. This was evidenced by the fact that all the women present complained of frequent chest pains and other respiratory ailments. Solar cookits are environmental friendly and are not perceived to be a health hazard. They are safe to use even around epileptics and children.

The area where the school is situated was a forest with several orchards a few years back but due to charcoal burning the environment has degenerated to what it is now. It is about a year since the last rainfall and their only water source which is a natural cave that traps rain has dried up. They now travel extremely long distances for water. The solar cooking demonstration offered an alternative to the norm in a bid to encourage reforestation. After the solar cooking demonstration, we had a tree planting session and explained to the audience composed of parents, teachers and children the relationship between poverty, deforestation, poor rainfall and ill health.

The trip to Kilibasi Primary School was very fruitful and was made possible by Global Giving Donors. We are very grateful and the community at Kilibasi appreciated it all.

Pictures:

• Road to Kilibasi Primary School (JPG)
• Still Driving (JPG)
• Almost There (JPG)

Mike Acton and Christine Illanes are students who traveled throughout Africa and visited a number of GlobalGiving projects. On March 20th they visited "Using Solar Energy for Cooking Fuel in Kenya." When asked what they would tell their friends about this project, Mike said: “It's a good project," while Christine said "Great: They are making a difference."

Mike writes:

We visited the office of AfriAfya to test a survey for Global Giving. The office was quite spread out with a few desks. AfriAfya works on various projects including the one posted on Global Giving. We had a fantastic conversation with Sara regarding how the global economic situation is affecting funding for the non-profit sector. Ann is working in the financing section and told us that she decided to work with AfriAfya because she saw how much difference it made when people had access to information that they trusted.

AfriAfya's main goal in all of its projects is to use information and communication technology to improve the health of communities in Kenya We were unable to visit the project's field sites due to our very compressed schedule in Nairobi.

Christine writes:

AfriAfya is a great organization working in Nairobi, Kenya. They are like a mini Global Giving, identifying local/ community based organizations that need support and linking them with expertise and donors. I met with Sara Kinagwi and Anne Njeri, who both told me about the lack of information available to Kenyans and how that impacted their life.

Sara was a doctor originally, but saw that people were unaware of even the most basic healthcare information and were becoming sick through ignorance more than disease. Anne chose to work for AfriAfya because she thinks that information is more important than money since with information people can change their lives and make better choices.

Training on how to make solar cookers was conducted over three (3) days from 26th to 28th August 2008. It was conducted in Mitaboni and amongst the participants were five (5) young men who willingly joined the women folk to learn how to make solar cookers. The participants were very active and all took part in cutting, spreading the glue on waxed card board and also preparing cooking ingredients to assess the solar cooker. It was exciting to watch the eager learners.

In addition the participants learnt about the fireless cooker which is an alternative for use during cloudy or rainy days. It uses the heat retention technique and consumes significantly less cooking fuel than ordinary cooking methods. Ordinarily in the Kenyan Culture the men sit and wait for the women to finish cooking and serve them food. However this time the men cooked, and the women helped themselves to delicious food later.

As we waited for the food to cook the Facilitators took sample water from three (3) boreholes used in this community and tested it to check how safe it is for drinking. After the incubation period, the test results revealed that only one of these bore-holes had clean water. The water from the other two (2) had high concentrations of e-coli bacteria and other micro organisms yet this community seldom boiled this water before drinking or washing fruits and vegetables. Ms. Faustine Lutta taught the participants how to pasteurize water using solar cookers hence ensuring it was safe to drink.

This is approximately six (6) months later and a random check on the participants at this training revealed that the training had a positive effect on the women from Mitaboni and is having a continual impact on the general community.

Ms. Martha Nthenge confirmed that they formed a group to encourage the use of solar energy for cooking. This solar energy awareness is commonly done through demonstrations at the open air market, in schools, during barazas held at the Chief’s Camp and at women group meetings (chamas). Ms. Nthenge says the response has been very good and they are mobilizing resources to purchase the solar cooker raw materials in bulk so as to benefit from economies of scale.

Ms Tabitha Kanyaa says she uses the solar cooker as long as the weather allows and saves the money she could have used to buy charcoal or kerosene. She uses the solar cooker to cook ugali, githeri and rice. Ms. Tabitha also said that after the testing of bore-hole water, they have ceased to assume that it is clean and have been creating awareness in the community on the importance of boiling or pasteurizing it before drinking. The participants at this meeting have since then made it a habit to pasteurize water before drinking it using the solar cookers.

Mr. Jonathan Musa says he uses the solar cooker to bake ground nuts which he subsequently sells. He has also succeeded in making solar cookers for sale and says that this seems to be a very promising business venture.

I take this opportunity to thank all our Donors for making the trainings a reality. AfriAfya as an info-mediary links information- poor communities to information-rich sources to boost livelihoods. This project in particular is targeting rural communities with a bid to empower them with skills and knowledge in solar cooking. We would also appreciate feedback from you about this project.

Pictures:

• Glue is spread on waxed card board (JPG)
• Reflective Paper is spread on waxed cardboard (JPG)
• Red Bias is used to protection (JPG)

The previous solar cooking demonstration was conducted on Thursday the 20th of September 2007 to a group of 45 women in Mitaboni location, Machakos District in Eastern Province of Kenya. Jacqueline and Rose who are Solar Cooking Representatives (SCOREPS) and Stella Odaba of Solar Cookers International in partnership with AfriAfya conducted the demonstration. After the demonstration, six cookits were donated to group leaders from the participants present.

This constituted the first phase of the project whereby beneficiaries are introduced to the technology. The next phase involved training local representatives drawn from the 15 Community based organizations (CBO’s) on the production of Cookits. The purpose of this training is to equip these women with skills to enable them promote solar cooking among community members as well as basic entrepreneurial skills to enable the new SCOREPS start cookits business. This training can now be conducted as additional funds of $878.21 were received this year thanks to you all. The training will take two (2) days and we anticipate having about thirty (30) Mitaboni women being trained.

During one of our field activities we identified another area where solar cooking technology would be ideal. This area is called Kilibasi and is located about 514 kilometers from Nairobi towards the Coastal Region, Southwest Kenya. Kilibasi was once a forest but due to charcoal burning vast lands have been reduced to deplorable state with little or no vegetation. In this region there is one (1) primary school whose student population density is dependent on the availability of lunch. When the school administration can afford to have lunch served the number of students can rise to about 500 and when there is none it drops to even 150 students. The lunch served is sometimes plain rice or crushed maize. The head teacher explained that the older girls in upper primary have to miss some lessons so that they can cook for the rest of the school.

The solar cooking technology would be excellent for this region and specifically for the school as it’s generally a hot and dry place. Also as the technology is such that the food is set in the sun and left to cook, the girls will be free to continue with the day’s lessons without interruption. When we get additional funds from you, we will take the solar cooking demonstration to Kilibasi Primary School and proceed to donate the cookits to them. We also hope to make a training video on the production and use of cookits that can be used to tutor similar groups.

We thank all our donors for making this additional training possible and a comprehensive update with plenty of pictures will be made soon after this training scheduled for 18th to 22nd August 2008.

Empowering these women with new skills will not only help them to prepare meals for their families, but will also help free up time spent looking for firewood for other life-improving activities. Also, providing solar cooking for the school at Kilibasi will ensure that the children get an education and at least one meal a day.

But for this to happen, we do need your help. So please keep those funds coming.

This July, we received our first donation to the solar energy for cooking fuel project in Kenya. With this money, we are planning to conduct an initial demonstration on solar cooking. In this, we will partner with Solar Cookers International; an organization that has done wonderful work of promoting solar cooking among rural communities in Kenya.

Two Maasai women from Kajiado in Kenya, who are part of a group of women that has already undergone training on solar cooking through Solar Cookers International, will conduct the exposure session. Popularly known as SCOREPS (Solar Cookers Representatives) in solar cooking circles, the women have been making solar cookers known as ‘cookits’. The ‘cookits’ are not only simple to make, but also produce delicious meals. The women are also earning an income from making and selling the solar ‘cookits’. We hope that the present beneficiaries of our solar energy project will experience similar benefits once they receive the full training.

A couple of weeks ago, I was on the road heading to Mitaboni to visit the project beneficiaries. My mission there was to discuss with the women about their expectations of the trainings. As always, they were ecstatic and can’t wait to get exposed to solar cooking.

During my visit, I happened to be at a local school during lunch and could not help notice pupils scattered all over the compound enjoying their favourite meal of maize and beans, which is provided hot at the school. Although it may appear apparent that children should get a meal and a hot one during lunch, this is far from it for a host of many other children in Mitaboni. Most mothers in the project group were almost in tears as they narrated bitterly how their children, on many occasions, had to go back to school hungry. ‘Our children have come home expecting to eat only to find that we were still out looking for firewood to make them a meal’, they lamented. But there is hope that this might soon be a thing of the past for Mitaboni families once the project takes off.

The only sad thing is that we are currently experiencing very cold weather in Kenya with the nice tropical sunshine not expected till late August. As a result, we may not start as soon as we would want because we need sunlight to allow demonstrations of how solar cooking works.
In spite of this, all arrangements are in top gear and we hope to start as soon as the weather allows. More updates from the demonstrations will be posted in September. Do come back and check them out.

We would like to thank all our donors for having responded to the plight of rural women in their search for a sustainable source of energy. Thank you very much. We still need more funds to enable us to conduct the full training which will give Mitaboni women skills on how to make solar cookits. The trainings will also be an avenue of making a training video that will be used to train other similar groups.
Empowering these women with new skills will not only help them to prepare meals for their families, but will also help free up time spent looking for firewood for other life-improving activities.
But for this to happen, we need your help. So do keep those funds coming