There has been a good initial response to the proposal that families change their cooking practices and adopt fuel efficient stoves to replace the traditional three stone fires presently in use. On 4th October, the closing day of the Season of Creation, Srs. Monica and Mairéad spent a large part of the day at Ngomani Village where fuel efficient stoves were built for 5 families
We are using the model developed by Ripple Africa – an NGO in the North of Malawi – as it uses locally available materials and is cheap and easy to build. These stoves help to reduce health hazards, restrict climate change, reduce deforestation and also support sustainable development goals for health and energy. A drawback is that it requires regular ongoing maintenance as the fire can crack the pot rests and the oven clay. However, we hope this will be overcome when the people begin to appreciate the benefits to themselves and the environment from the change in practice.
