On Friday 20th May, to celebrate DelAgua’s decade of impact in Rwanda, Chairman Neil McDougall and Country Director Monica Keza hosted a VIP visit to Gicumbi District, Bwisige Sector. Hundreds of households gathered for the distribution and the atmosphere was joyful, including the crowd’s impromptu rendition of the popular Tubeho Neza song. The VIP guests were able to see a Tubeho Neza “Live Well” clean cookstoves distribution in action followed by visits to households who have received the stoves. The partnership with DelAgua and the Government of Rwanda has been central to Tubeho Neza’s success and guests were welcomed from the Ministry of the Environment, REMA, FONERWA, EDCL, LODA, and officials from the Province and District. Also attending were international investors and guests from the UK High Commission, the Clean Cooking Alliance, and Burn, who manufacture the high- performance stove distributed to households.
Tubeho Neza provides the stove along with a comprehensive health education programme free of charge to households, recognising that for the rural population living on a dollar a day or less, the purchase of a high- quality stove is financially impossible. The programme is funded by the sales of carbon credits generated by stove usage. The DelAgua Tubeho Neza stove uses 71% less wood than an open fire and saves 35 tons of CO2 emissions over its 10- year life.
The scale of the programme, the innovative use of technology to track stove usage and the effectiveness of the education and long- term support that is provided by the 5,000 Community Health Workers, trained and paid by DelAgua, make Tubeho Neza exceptional.
Chairman Neil McDougall said “Our highly skilled team right now are distributing 10,000 stoves daily. By the end of this year we will have provided over 1 million stoves to rural Rwandan households. We have a well- established infrastructure and superb team in Rwanda who will be delivering 2.3 million stoves, one for every rural household, by 2024.” Neil in particular emphasised that those most in need should not be deprived of access to a high -quality stove that will improve health, just because they cannot afford to buy such a stove.
The programme is using carbon financing to ensure that the poorest rural families can benefit from the Tubeho Neza stove which will reduce death and disease caused by smoke inhalation from traditional fires and deliver further lasting benefits over the 10 year life of the stove including economic wellbeing, work and skills and, in particular, improving women’s lives and opportunities by freeing them from the fire.
Neil concluded by stating that Rwanda’s Tubeho Neza is providing the blueprint for success in tackling the devastating health and environmental effects of cooking on open fires and that DelAgua are now ready and looking forward to bringing the benefits of Tubeho Neza to other African countries.
Director General Philippe Kwitonda from the Ministry of Environment thanked DelAgua for the programme which is providing such a range of benefits to rural families and also emphasised the role the stove has to play in preserving Rwanda’s forestry and enabling the success of reforestation programmes by reducing wood use and encroachment into forestry for fuel.
