Obia-Zeu Uganda Solar Project

Vital Stats

Max O

Brunswick, OH

  • people helped500
  • People Doing It 10

The Problem

I did my 7th grade science project on solar cooking. I was also volunteering at a hospice facility in Parma, Ohio where I met a missionary priest from a village in Obia, Uganda, Fr. Alexander Inke. Fr. Inke told me how the women and children in the village spend many hours gathering sticks for firewood, and how it impacts their safety, the environment, their health and their living standards. I explained to him how solar cooking could help, and began to work with Solar Cookers International to start a project to help the village. In June, I went to Uganda myself. I learned that my actions can make a difference and I am passionate about working on this project! The specific problem I am trying to address is that women and children in the Obia-Zeu region of Uganda are spending many hours of their day collecting sticks to use as firewood. Using firewood as a fuel source contributes to deforestation and harms our environment, and women use firewood to cook indoors which creates indoor air pollution. This causes them to have poor health and respiratory illnesses. Spending so much time collecting firewood can be personally dangerous, and means that women don’t have time to work and some children can’t get an education. Using solar cookers as a fuel source will reduce dependence on firewood, allow people to have a free source of cooking fuel and give them more time to spend doing other things besides gathering firewood. It will also mean that women won't have to cook over smoky fires and they will have better health.

Plan of Action

I started this project using what I learned from doing a school science project on solar cooking. I contacted Solar Cookers International (SCI) for advice, did research, raised funds, and worked to organize an integrated solar cooking workshop. I asked a Ugandan non-profit organization, Solar Connect Association, to provide solar cooking/haybasket training at the workshop, and SCI invited AidAfrica from Gulu, Uganda to train on fuel-efficient stoves. I worked with contacts I made in Obia, Uganda who mobilized a diverse group of 36 individuals from churches, schools, and government, healthcare, environmental and social service organizations located throughout the Obia-Zeu subcounty, Zombo district, Uganda. These 36 individuals were introduced to the integrated solar cooking technology and received training in June, 2008 in Obia-Zeu, Uganda. I witnessed the impact of the project firsthand throughout the workshop. The 36 participants were enthusiastic, motivated, and receptive to the new technology. The individuals clearly appreciated the training and understood the environmental, health and economic benefits to using the integrated cooking methods. Since then, I've found out that the participants are continuing use of the cookers, haybaskets and stoves, and are beginning to train others on the use. The participants have also arranged to get together to discuss what is working/not working and exchange information. My long-term goal is to implement a self-sustaining integrated solar project over a 2-3 year period. My goals over the next 1 year period are to 1) Provide a supply of materials to keep the project momentum going. 2) Provide additional training, instruction and follow-up for the 36 participants to better prepare them to act as integrated solar cooking instructors to instruct their organizations and the villages in which they work/live. 3)Introduce a micro-credit financing option to ensure sustainability of the project. 4)Conduct a follow-up session and reevaluate the needs of the 36 participants.
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Environment
Physical and Mental Health
Homelessness and Poverty

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