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The DelAgua stove delivers significant gender benefits as less time is spent collecting wood and cooking.
95% of household cooking in rural Rwanda is done by women and girls. The daily drudgery of wood collection, tending the fire, food preparation, cooking and cleaning up occupies as much as 8 hours every day. The wood needed for the DelAgua stove is reduced by 71% resulting in 71% less time collecting wood. Household research shows that along with fast cooking times, reduced wood usage is the benefit most appreciated by women.
Traditional fires required large branches which meant girls making long expeditions to forests to find the wood.
This not only took up time but could put them at risk of attack, away from their local community. Traditional cooking methods increase women and girls’ exposure to the risk of gender- based violence (GBV). The number of fuel gathering trips, the distances travelled and the time taken all contribute to the incidence of GBV. The DelAgua stove uses just small twigs and tinder which the girls can gather close to home, so feel safer. And because the stove uses 71% less wood ,the number of trips and the time taken to collect sufficient fuel are both significantly reduced which in turn reduces the risk of GBV.
It’s a stove that is designed to work for the women and the reality of their lives.
Speed of cooking is cited by women as their favourite benefit of the DelAgua stove. The stove lights easily, boils water rapidly and cooks staples such as beans in half the time.
Women adapt easily to using it and behaviour change is immediate. Independent audits show that 2 years after distribution, 90% of stoves remain in daily use.
The stove saves time and frees women from the fire.
The younger girls can spend more time in school and being with their friends. The women have the time to invest in activities other than cooking, for example the opportunity to set up a micro-enterprise or helping cultivate their land and improving the crop yields. They can also socialise and meet with their friends.
Freeing women from the fire and allowing them to engage economically has important long-term benefits for the women of Rwanda and for Rwanda’s overall social and economic development.
The project is funded by the sale of carbon credits. Help free more women from the fire, provide more life-changing stoves, offset your carbon footprint and buy carbon credits directly from DelAgua, via the UNFCCC site.
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