Carbon Zero Kenya Ltd has continued with the mission of promoting use of clean energy and improving community livelihoods. In the Mathira East project, the company has continued to advocate and champion adoption of clean energy not only for campaigning against green house gases emission but also improving the lives of the community economically and socially. Among the notable aspects of the CZ stove that makes many beneficiaries praise it is in its great ability to save fuel. In the area, wood fuel is a scarce commodity. The cost of wood fuel has risen as more and more forests get cleared as families seek to alleviate the problem of firewood shortage. There seemed to be no refuge in the near future for the community members.
However, they have found just what they needed, the CZK stove.
In one of the many success stories in the area, one afternoon we meet Miss Nancy in her home. She was just preparing to the well known routine of firewood preparation for the family. She narrated her story of a courageous girl whose determination would be easily missed by just looking at her face.
‘Naitwa Nancy,kifungua mimba katika familia ya watoto watatu.Majukumu yangu ni kuwatayarisha wadogo wangu kwenda shule pamoja na kutafuta kuni za kupikia na kuchemsha maji ya kuogea.Awali ilikua vigumu kupata kuni za kutosha hasa mwezi wa saba na nane kunapokua na mvua na baridi nyingi, kuni zinakua baridi sana.Nawashukuru kwa hii jiko mliotupatia kwa kua inatumia kuni kiasi na kuniwezesha kufanya kazi yangu kwa haraka na kupata wakati wa kutosha kusoma’.
She is the eldest of her three siblings. She is in form four and by the end of this year she is awaiting to sit for her certificate in secondary education examinations. Her parents are busy people. Her mother usually leaves at the strike of dawn and returns in the late hours of the evening in trying to make the ends meet for the family. Being the eldest girl, she has to take responsibility of preparing the other siblings to get ready for school. In the evening she has to assume the mother’s role and prepare the households firewood for the evening. On numerous occasions, when the mother is very late, she has to prepare the evening meals for the family.
This seems a very big challenge to a young girl. She says the family depends mainly on collected firewood to supplement some of the fuel the family manages to purchase. Therefore, after school hours she has to take care of her tight schedule before darkness. She continues to tell us of her challenge when using the traditional 3 stone stove. She says the stove, used a lot of wood fuel to prepare a single meal. Most of the times, the stove would exhaust all the wood fuel she and her siblings had collected. This would leave them with no fuel to prepare breakfast in the morning. In addition, they would have to endure the chilling cold water in the morning to take bath. But all that was about to change, and change for the better with the arrival of the CZK stove. A daily routine in collecting wood fuel has been reduced to 3 days in a week. She says that the evening are nowadays more manageable, all she has to do is take care of her siblings, and a tiresome task of preparing meals has now become more enjoyable. By dusk the family is settled and she can find time to study and maintain good performance in her class.
As she happily smiles, we can share in her happiness in realization of how the CZK stove has greatly contributed to improving the lives of the many community members.