The project intends to empower 120 women in Purko location of Kajiado County, Kenya in briquettes making as an alternative source of cooking fuel and income. The women were dependent on charcoal selling which has now been banned. The women will be able to use the briquettes as their own source of fuel (slashing their cooking-fuel costs to a tenth or less) and selling to the readily available market within the county. Help resolve the cooking-energy poverty faced by the poorest and air pollution
Since of March 2018 there has been a ban enforced by the Kajiado County government on the sale of charcoal. Charcoal was one of the main sources of income and source of cooking fuel of the women. The income earned by the women is most oftenly used in purchasing of food for the household. Absence of such leads to lower food and nutrition security for the family especially the children. An adaptation of a safer, cleaner, cheaper source of fuel is necessary as it also has a ready market
Empower the women in capacity building in briquettes making as an alternative as a source of cooking fuel and income. With charcoal briquettes it costs just 3 Kenya Shillings (US$0.04) to cook a traditional meal of maize and beans for a standard household of 5 people. This is nine times cheaper than cooking the same meal with charcoal (KSh 26 or US$0.3) and 15 times cheaper than cooking with kerosene (KSh 45 or US$0.6). ). As such, households are now able to choose from a wider dietary range.
The project will instill skills in 100 women through economic empowerment improve the livelihoods, food & nutritional security, better living health standards, income independence leading to a society with an empowered woman and a well adapted community to the climatic changes. The clean burn of charcoal briquettes dramatically reduces indoor air pollution one of the leading causes of the 400,000 deaths from respiratory diseases that occur each year in sub-Saharan Africa.
This project has provided additional documentation in a DOCX file (projdoc.docx).
