Toshiba Tec Europe
The Toshiba Carbon Zero Scheme supports the ongoing activities to promote and disseminate improved cook stoves in Kenya. These stoves replace the traditional 3-stone fires that are used throughout Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa, which require vast amounts of firewood, emit large amounts of greenhouse gases and expose their users to illnesses associated with indoor air pollution.
Women in sub-Saharan Africa typically face vast domestic work burdens in the household compared to men and often have little to no control over how their earnings are spent, with male relatives responsible for financial decision-making.
Lillian Jepkemoi lives in Chepsamo village in Kenya with her 3 children, who are of primary school age. She tragically lost her husband in a road accident in 2011. This crippling loss left her with the immense challenge of raising her 3 children alone, feeding and clothing them as well as finding the funds for their school fees, books and uniform. One of the key challenges for her was to be able to cook for her children, given that she only had access to a 3-stone fire which consumed vast amounts of firewood which she would have to spend several hours collecting every day. The fire also emitted vast amounts of smoke, which caused Lillian and her children to suffer from regular respiratory problems, putting the additional strain on the family of paying for medicine.
Lillian received the CarbonZero stove shortly after her husband’s death. She remembers: “I was so happy to receive this stove as it has opened many doors of opportunity in my life”. Lillian recounts how, when her husband was alive and they were using the 3-stone fire, she would spend most of the day gathering firewood in the forest and relied on her husband to support the family by cultivating crops on their small patch of land. When he died, Lillian felt very sorry for her children, not knowing how she could possibly raise them alone. Receiving the stove was a game-changer, as Lillian could reduce her time spend gathering firewood to less than 2 hours per day. This meant she had time to work on cultivating crops to feed the family, as well as dedicating time to tending to her small plot of passion fruit trees which, when in season for 3 months of the year, will yield approximately £15 per week worth of fruit. With the funds raised from passion fruits, Lillian has been able to invest in general household goods and groceries which she sells from a mini-shop on the local market, thereby providing year-round income which she can plough back into her children’s education.
Lillian today does not see herself as a widow because she is able to support herself and her children alone, generating the funds to feed them and ensure that they receive a quality education. Without the extra time to invest in income generating opportunities afforded by the CarbonZero stove, Lillian would most likely have been forced to remarry as a second wife, which would have reduced her ability to ensure that her own children’s education is supported. She would have also faced a heightened risk of exposure to sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, of which there is a heightened risk of infection when concurrent relationships exist. Contrary to that, she is now supporting her children independently and hope to support them to access the higher education opportunities that she herself lacked.
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