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The majority of Kenyan households rely on firewood for their cooking. Diets are limited to available and affordable foods that cook rapidly and provide less nutrition. Drinking water often goes untreated. An alternative is for people to use solar cookers such as those being distributed by Solar Cookers International (SCI) across Kenya
In a rural community near Lake Victoria, Elizabeth, like over a thousand other women in the area, bought a cooking tool that is revolutionising her life and that of her family. She says: "I use solar energy to cook food and heat drinking water to safe temperatures. My charcoal, firewood and gas are saved for use when it is dark or rainy. The best part is I can run an errand or do laundry while our meals cook. Cooking beans and stews is easy now. I cough less and my eyes don't water like they used to. I bought my solar cooker - it's called the CooKit from my cousin who received special training so she could make money from selling CooKits."
Elizabeth is not alone, over three thousand women like her are now using CooKits and, like her cousin, there are forty-three trained women selling CooKits. SCI has recently expanded to two additional project sites to increase the availability of the cookers across Kenya.
SCI's goal is to organise the spread of affordable solar cookers so it is selfsustaining in Kenya by the year 2010. A network of trained local women will sell directly to multiple communities and lay the foundation for popular demand for inexpensive, user-friendly solar cookers.
Solar cooker
Panel solar cookers are the first solar cookers that are truly affordable for the needy. In 1994, a volunteer group of engineers and solar cooks associated with Solar Cookers International developed and produced the first "panel" cooker, the CooKit, and these have been manufactured in Nairobi to serve refugees in Kenya and Ethiopia.
Elegant and simple, it is an affordable, effective and convenient solar cooker. The CooKit is made from cardboard to which aluminium foil is glued. It is then cut and folded into a shape that can take a dark-coloured cooking pot which is put inside a plastic bag for cooking in the sun. With a few hours of...