Goal: $2,000

Name:

Aim: Provision of funding to purchase 100 stoves for families in the Arba Minch area (highlands and lowlands). 

Cost: Each stove, locally made costs $20 to buy, deliver and install.

THE NEED DESCRIBED:

Our partner VITA has developed a very cheap but hugely efficient stove in order to counteract the significant problems arising from cooking for the family.   Women and girls in this area walk many miles daily to find firewood for cooking, carrying it homes on their backs or heads.  Often girls have to stay out of school help with this or to mind their siblings while their mother does this work.  When their food is cooked on open fires it causes a very large amount smoke, with the associated serious health issues such as eye disease, asthma, bronchitis and severe lung disease.  The stove is efficient in reducing the necessity for so much firewood, and containing the smoke to counteract the health impact.  Less wood searching and less maternal illness reduces the need for girls to be away from school.  The pre-cast concrete stove is made locally, thereby providing jobs and income to the community.  There are many families could never save $20 in order to purchase one.  This program would provide a stove for 100 families, making an immense impact on the health of women and girls, as well as allowing the girls to remain in school, thereby enhancing their education. 

THE CURRENT PROGRAM:

Vita is a very impressive organization, whose values are Inclusion, Enablement, Sustainability & Accountability.   For our visit to Ethiopia, we were chaperoned by a local college student who introduced us to the families that had benefitted from this intervention.  They demonstrated the enormous impact that small contributions can make to these communities. In addition, VITA can leverage our contribution by adding it to the carbon fund, ensuring that in effect the $2,000 given will have the impact of close to three ties that amount. 

YOUR DONATION:

Will provide efficient stoves to rural families in Arba Minch, Ethiopia, which will reduce health risks regarding excess smoke and allow women and girls to spend less time collecting wood and more time on pursuits like education or enterprise- thank you!