| | | | Burkina Faso | | Ethiopia | | Eritrea | | Ghana | | Kenya | | Malawi | | Togo | | Uganda | | Zambia | | | | Events Calendar | | | | | 20 Year Highlights | | | What Your Money is Doing | | Regular Giving | | Fund-Raising Suggestions | | One Click Donation | | Corporate Seed Fund | | Farmers Grow Fund | | Volunteering | | Tax Relief on Donations | | | 2007 Kenya | | 2006 Eritrea | | 2005 -Kenya-Uganda-Malawi | | 2001-2004 From the Archives | | › | Africa Alive Schools Programme |
| | Recent School News | | School Visits | | Curriculum Publications | | Student & Teacher Impressions | | Pictures Download | | Young Scientists Exhibition | | School Profiles (coming soon) | | | Africa Framed | | Value of Rubbish | | | | Press Releases | | Articles on Self Help Activities | | Related Topics | | | | | | |  |  |
|
|
|  | | Buee Cooking Stoves, Ethiopia | | One of the most successful recent savings and credit co-operative enterprises to have been supported by Self Help has been the Buee women’s co-operative- an enterprise established by ten local women in the Eastern Shoa district to manufacture improved cooking stoves for rural households.
Using a Government design which was devised to answer needs for a greater degree of fuel efficiency and to improve the levels of hygiene in Ethiopia’s indigenous circular straw-roofed ‘tukul’ homes, the local women’s group sold more than 500 of their new stoves within a manner of months when they set up their business last year.
And the demand shows no sign of slowing down – with their business thriving, and a group of women in a neighbouring district following their lead with the establishment of a similar enterprise to meet the demand for cooking stoves in their locality.
Women’s Development Officer with SHDI in the Sodo Project area Misrak Admasu says that the women were initially stunned by the success of their efforts, but now recognise that they have a viable business enterprise on their hands, and are using the profits from the enterprise to improve the lives of their families in other ways.
‘Several of them have bought poultry and livestock with the profits, and others have realised that they are now in a position to send their children to school for the very first time’, she said. |
| |
| The group initially borrowed a total of just 350 birr (€35) as their business start up loan from the SACCO, but are now generating almost twice that each month from their efforts.
Misrak Admasu says that the stoves have been popular for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that they are far more fuel efficient than the alternative. ‘Rural Ethiopian women traditionally spend a lot of their time each day gathering firewood just to be able to cook – these stoves save them a lot of time because they burn far more efficiently, not to mention the fact that the rate at which trees need to be felled is reduced, and there is also a reduction in the amount of smoke generated in the home – and thus in respiratory infections in the household’. | | See also SACCO's | | Related Topics | | | | | |
|
| | | | | Self Help Africa is a limited liability company. Company number: 105601 Charity No. 6663 (Ireland)
The organisation has offices in Ireland at: Annefield House, Dublin Road, Portlaoise, Co. Laois Tel: 00 353 (0)57 8694034 - Fax: 00 353 (0)57 8694038, and in the United Kingdom at : Second Floor Suite, Westgate House, Dickens Court, Off Hills Lane, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY1 1QU. Tel : 0044-(0)1743 277170
| | | | | | | | |
|
|
|
|
