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Solar Cookits for Kenya Camps

Boiling Point
Front cover of Boiling Point issue 37
Issue 37 (1996) Household energy in emergency situations
ArticleSolar Cookits for Kenya Camps
AuthorExtracted from the SCI Solar Cooker Review?
Half the world still cooks its meals over wood fires, and in East Africa about 85 per cent of families do so. Refugees pouring into fragile, arid regions are creating acute wood shortages which contribute to malnutrition in the local population and environmental depredation. In the past, many of the 35,000 refugees in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in north west Kenya had to barter away part of their meagre food rations in exchange for enough fuel to cook the remainder. It is now ten months since Solar Cook International introduced the new cookit in Kakuma. Today, thanks to generous donors, over 1200 families are able to use solar cookers, and the project is struggling to keep up with the demand for more cookers.

Of the refugee women who became solar cooks, 24 volunteered for extra training so they could teach their neighbours. The project in Kakuma is now under the able administration of a solar cooker trainer, herself a refugee.

The success of the SCI's pilot project in Kakuma prompted the United Nations High Commission on Refugees to request similar training in its Dadaab Refugee Camp. Dadaab is a cluster of refugee camps almost directly on the equator in north east Kenya near the Somali border. 100,000 refugees there find gathering fuelwood increasingly difficult and dangerous.
Adapted CooKit design
Adapted CooKit design


SCI was able to provide the training, this time through a GTZ programme and an SCI team. The team held three-day participatory workshops in each of the three camps and in the town of Dadaab, teaching 35 household energy extension workers the basics of solar cooking and solar pasteurization of milk and water. With the first group much time was taken in solar cooking common, local camp rations.

They noted that even on several partly cloudy days they still saved a few sticks of firewood by partly cooking the food in the solar cooker, then quickly finishing over a fire.

SCI has commissioned external, independent evaluations of both refugee projects to measure actual acceptance, use and family fuel savings. The evaluation of Kakuma is in progress at this time. The evaluation in Dadaab is planned for late 1996.

[top] [end]Solar Cookit

There are many types of solar cooking devices. For many years SCT focused primarily on boxtype cookers, as they appeared to be the most convenient and most widely- used in households worldwide. A new type of open panel cooker (the 'CooKit') performs so well and has shown such rapid acceptance that SCI now consider it ideal for introductory programs. It is easy to store, carry, set up and learn to use. It is compact and costs a fraction of most box cookers. The design below is particularly effective at equatorial sun angles. Cardboard with aluminium foil on the front side and a wax coating on the back are proving durable in Kenya, but CooKits can be built from almost any firm material. The only adjustment for heavier materials is to devise a way to hold up the front panel so it doesn't fall down from its own weight. Dimensions are in centimetres.

[top] [end]Contents: Boiling Point 37: Household energy in emergency situations

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Energy options for Refugee Camps - ApTibeT Refugee Projects in Ladakh - Solar Cookits for Kenya Camps - Cooking Energy as Seen by a Planner - Stoves in Emergency Actions - Stoves for Centralized Cooking for Emergency Settlements - Camp Cooking - Stove Checklist for Refugee Situations - African Refugee Energy Workshop - Sunseed solar cooker-Tanzania trials 1995 - Vietnam Low-Cost Solar Water Heater - Energy for domestic brewing and bread baking - Indian Chulha technology since 1983

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Page created: 10 August 2007; Last edited: 08 December 2008; Version: 1
Knowledge Bank text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Pagename: SolarCookitsForKenyaCamps @HEDON: KMGA