Darfur Stoves Project and the international development organization, Plan Canada announced the launch of a new partnership to provide fuel-efficient cookstoves to women in Sudan’s war-torn region of Darfur.
The partnership seeks to protect Darfuri women by providing them with specially developed stoves which are more energy efficient, decreasing women’s exposure to violence while collecting firewood and their need to trade food rations for fuel.
According to Andrée Sosler, Darfur Stoves Project’s Executive Director, “The partnership with Plan Canada will help extend our reach, enabling us to reach 1,500 additional families in the next three months. We are delighted to enlist Plan as our newest field partner, and hope this will mark the beginning of a long-term collaboration between our organizations.”
In Darfur, conflict has claimed the lives of at least 300,000 people and created almost three million internally displaced persons (IDPs), most of whom have taken refuge in camps. Families in IDP camps receive food aid and cooking oil from humanitarian aid organizations; however, families are still responsible for gathering firewood for cooking. Because of the desert-like terrain and the large populations in the IDP camps, wood is scarce.
Traditionally, women and girls are responsible for obtaining cooking fuel, venturing for hours on foot to collect wood, risking assault during these treks. Because of increasing pressure on Darfur’s environment there is almost no wood available within walking distance of the camps, and today most women must sell a portion of their food aid for cash to purchase firewood.
These fuel-efficient stoves dramatically decrease the amount of fuel women need each day. For women still collecting wood, the stoves reduce the frequency of their treks outside the camps and their exposure to violence. For the majority who are now trading food aid for cash to purchase wood, the fuel-efficient stove enables them to save money and provide more food to their families.
Photo Courtesy: Darfur Stoves
Read the Press Release: Aid organizations launch partnership to provide clean cookstoves to women in Darfur
