SDG 10 IN KENYA

Dennis Omer's story

The Toshiba Carbonn Zero Scheme has been supporting the Kenya Cook Stove Project since it first began. The efficient nature of the stove halves the amount of firewood needed, saving time and money on collecting firewood. In some areas people have to purchase permits to access local forests. The time saved means that that can focus on agriculture activities, thereby improving household food security.

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Dennis Omer is 22 and lives in Kadero village in Kisumu East with his wife and 4 children. The family used to do all of their cooking on a 3-stone open fire before obtaining a fuel-efficient cookstove through the Toshiba CarbonZero scheme. Dennis recounts how the family used to spend hours every day gathering firewood to be able to cook, with the children sent out for at least 2 hours every evening after school, which ate into valuable time that could be spent on their homework. Family members would also frequently become sick and cough frequently due to smoke inhalation, with rarely a week passing without at least one child being forced to miss a day of school.

Since receiving the stove, the family’s firewood consumption has reduced to less than half of its previous amount. This means that the adults in the house are now able to gather the firewood needed for the day first thing in the morning, and then have the rest of the day to focus on more productive activities. The children, meanwhile, scarcely ever have to help gather firewood and have much more time to spend on their homework.

For his part, Dennis has taken advantage of the time saved on gathering firewood to plant a field of sunflowers. His plan is to harvest the seed to sell to a sunflower oil factory a few kilometres away, which guarantees him the ability to sell a bulk volume of seed and generate a significant contribution to household income. Considering that it is possible to harvest sunflowers up to 4 times a year, this promises to bring a significant regular income to the household. He reports: “I will be able to earn about 1,000,000 shillings from the sale of this produce and with this, I will be able to pay school fees and buy stationary for the children, purchase extra food for the family and cover any medical fees among others. With this Toshiba CarbonZero stove, we no longer spend hours every day in search of firewood for domestic use. This has given us so much time to concentrate on other activities that can help improve on our livelihoods. My children are now good performers at school.”

 

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