Schools Close Again

Last Sunday 6th of June President Joweri Museveni addressed the nation as a result of the increasing number of Covid-19 cases registered in the country. In his speech, the President stated 17% of the population currently have Covid, with the cumulative cases now standing at 52,929. Because the number of cases is now much higher with this wave when compared to the previous ones, and the most affected age group are young people between 20 and 39 years of age with the most transmitting rate in between 10 and 19 years of age, certain lockdown measures had to be put back in place.

This included closing down all schools and institutions of higher learning for 42 days, starting from Monday 7th of June. All teachers will have to now get fully vaccinated before returning to teach when schools open again on Monday 19th of July. Inshallah!

We continue to support our schools despite the pandemic and lockdown measures, and take this closing period to do repairs and maintenance of their institutional improved cook stoves. We will keep you updated of all maintenance activities taking place very soon!

June - Month of Reels

This month of June we will be entertaining our Instagram readers with short video clips straight from the field. Every day, our amazing colleague Surbhi will be creating and editing fun stories from the schools that represent the efforts we have been working on for over the past five years.

From kitchens to classrooms, children and cooks, we will be showing you what a typical day in Kampala feels like. Say tuned and don’t forget to follow us @Simoshi.limited as we continue to enrich the already colorful and engaging Instagram account.

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Gold Standard Labeling

Our second issuance of 3,950 carbon credits got the Gold Standard (GS) labeling yesterday, becoming Gold Standard Certified Emission Reductions (GS CERs). The Gold Standard label is one of the most rigorous certification standards available for carbon offset projects – ensuring their efficacy both ecologically and socially ensuring that projects deliver genuine emission reductions and long-term sustainable development through linking to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda” achieved nine GS verifiable and measurable SDGs, making it one of the few available projects with the highest number of achieved goals.

Initial Survey For a New School

We are constantly getting calls from new schools who are interested in learning more about our Project Activity. We are very lucky because it is all word of mouth, existing schools enjoying the benefits of our institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) and the service we have been providing for over 5 years, are continuously recommending Simoshi.

Yesterday we visited a big secondary school close to Gayaza town, with almost 1,800 secondary children. Unfortunately their kitchen environment is not up to standards. We are hopeful this will be soon a new school joining our activities, and we had managed to asses the current kitchen environment, make recommendations to improve the infrastructure, and had left the Head Teacher with a quotation and payment plan for their 5 IICS of different saucepan capacities.

We were impressed to see the strict measures the school is following with the COVID-19 Standard Operational Procedures and how they are ensuring temperature is continuously checked for every student prior their meal. We are sharing a short video and explanation here below.

Hello May

Another month starts and we look forward to seeing the children from Senior 2 join the classroom, as a result of the measures put in place by the Ministry of Education. Primary 1, 2 and 3 are still at home, and they should be coming back to class on the 7th of June. That is when the whole school classes will be fully attending.

In the meantime, for us here at Simoshi, it meant we are collecting some indicators on a monthly basis, because the population is continuously changing, with these figures having a direct effect on the amount of food prepared and the quantity of firewood burnt to fuel the institutional improved cook stoves.

It has also allowed us to gather great videos from the kitchen and wanted to share some of the testimonies from the ladies responsible for preparing the food. Here below is a short caption from Christine at Glory to Glory Primary School.

Christine at tells her story from Glory to Glory

Easy To Adopt, Attractive and Socially Acceptable

Convenient and reliable, that is how the cooking appliances should perform. In this part of our planet, over 80% of the households and schools are still relying on firewood and charcoal to prepare their daily meals. It is even more discouraging to see traditional 3-stone fires and local inneffiicient stoves being used, when there is an existing supply of locally manufactured energy efficient cook stoves available for purchase, at affordable and realistic prices.

What is stopping people from accessing one of these improved cook stoves, whether for household use (ICS) or institutional use (IICS)

Our successful approach has included an on-going provision of training and information to those involved in the ICS/IICS use, and the provision of free IICS annual maintenance, which has been taking place for the past five years.

Energy efficiency is the “first fuel” - the fuel you do not need to use - and first step towards reducing the costs of mitigating carbon emissions while advancing social and economic development, enhancing energy security and quality of life, and also creating jobs.

Remember to visit the UNFCCC Climate Neutral Now platform to purchase your carbon credits when offsetting your carbon dioxide footprint. In doing so, you are supporting all the activities mentioned above. This project would not be able to exist in the absence of carbon finance.

Nakasero Primary School

Nakasero Primary School is the latest school to join Simoshi’s Project Activity as five new institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) were delivered and installed last Saturday. Nakasero is under the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) administration and management that benefited from obtaining their IICS at no cost thanks to the generous COVID-19 Relief Fund grant supported by ENVED GIZ. This makes a total of seven new schools included under such grant so far, with six more to go to finalize with the utilisation of funds.

The kitchen building is not looking optimal in the pictures we share below because the door had to be widened to let the IICS in, and the walls are badly stained with soot from the use of their old stoves. Nevertheless, as time progresses and more children come back to class, the school Head Teacher has promised to put some efforts in beautifying the building as they slowly collect school fees.

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No Masks, No Lunch!

Yesterday we were monitoring the kitchen at St. James Bbiina Primary School. You might remember we installed their institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) during last year’s lockdown. Today we are pleased to see the school slowly going back to normal daily operations.

We found them during lunch hours, when the traditional posho and beans were being served. The children lined up diligently, and the matron’s voice could be heard loud and clear “no masks, no food”. We are always happy to share the stories from the field as we continue to support the schools in their cooking transition.

Why Such A Price Difference?

What is the price of climate damage? Nobody knows yet….What is the social price of carbon? Measuring the harm that is done to societies now and in the future by a ton of emission of carbon dioxide not released into the atmosphere is still difficult to predict.

Nevertheless, there is a clear accountability when it comes to measuring the environmental, economic and social impact the sale of that carbon credit can have in those communities where Simoshi’s Project Activity is being implemented. In other words, where that reduction of carbon dioxide happened from moving schools from using traditional 3-stone fires to using energy efficient cook stoves for preparing the school daily meals.

It is imperative that carbon credits reflect additional, verified, long-lived reductions of carbon dioxide equivalent with a high degree of certainty. Unfortunately the market has seen very many carbon credits that generated from projects that are (i) not additional (they would not have happened without carbon finance), (ii) generate leakage that affect regional or global market equilibrium, and (iii) overstated benefits that are poorly monitored or not monitored at all.

Offset credits are highly differentiated products in terms of the benefits they provide and the certainty of those benefits. Even with issued certifying labels in place, many carbon credits are still currently being traded with little integrity and transparency. Given the wide range of offset quality today, buyers concerned about quality have no choice but to identify high-quality offsets by themselves.

So what is the solution? Transparency is key and therefore the monitoring of indicators, calculations and benefits should be clearly publicly disclosed by both the project developers and certifying bodies. The same applies to those companies and/or individuals offsetting their carbon footprint. Is it fair to say that company x made an offset of an amount of carbon dioxide having paid cents of a US dollar when the benefits from such reduction where overstated or most probably non-existent? Best practice for corporate disclosure should be adopted including the required disclosure of the specific projects from which carbon offsets are purchased.

As we thrive in a wold that is currently coming to terms with the devastating future effects of climate change, help us by raising awareness of why governments, donors, the private sector and the public in general need to come to terms that putting a social price on carbon is now more important than ever.

Five New Schools Added

As part of the Covid-19 Relief fund - a generous donation from Endev and GIZ - five more Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) primary schools have been now added to Simoshi’s Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda”. All five schools are now enjoying cooking their daily student and staff meals with the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) they had received completely for free as they slowly recover from the past full year school closure.

The number of schools so far that have enjoyed from such grant are Katwe Primary School, Kyambogo Primary School, St. Jude Primary School, Mackay Memorial Primary School, Muslim Girls Primary School, previously joined by Munyonyo Primary School that was already included last month, totaling six school that are successfully now reducing their firewood consumption by at least half.

The list is not stopping here, we are only half way through, as we are busy with the manufacturer Ugastove supervising the fabrication of more IICS for a further seven KCCA schools that will be receiving their donation during the months of April and May.

Celebrating Women

Today, and everyday, we celebrate women as key players in their role in clean energy concerns as they raise important issues in the health and economic daily impact, while directly affect the environmental and global climate change problems faced today.

Clean cooking results in tangible effects for women and girls. They play a crucial leadership role in the adoption and use of clean cooking solutions. With improved health and less time spent when collecting fuel, they can pursue income-generating or educational opportunities, contributing to poverty alleviation, between many of the sustainable development impacts an energy efficient cooking stove can have in their everyday lives.

We dedicate this post to all those women responsible for preparing the daily school meals and ensuring the food is ready on time, despite the distressing conditions they face as a result of traditional cooking practices that continuously threaten their health and safety.

Second Carbon Credit Issuance

Another fantastic milestone has been achieved as we issued our second batch of 3,950 certified emission reductions (CERs) generated from 62 participating schools under the Clean Development Mechanism and Gold Standard registered Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda”.

This issuance was 50% smaller than our first issuance as a result of a shorter monitoring period that had to be closed in advance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, it proves this successful model is able to continue to support schools as they move away from traditional cooking practices, thanks to the financial support provided by all those individuals and companies that responsibly offset their carbon footprint.

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Primary Schools Are The Beneficiaries

As previously reported last month, Simoshi has been the grant recipient of the EnDev Covid19 Relief Fund. This means 12 Kampala Capital City Authority primary schools will be moving away from their traditional cooking practices as they receive their new institutional improved cook stoves (IICS).

We have been busy over the weekend making the delivery, IICS installation and training of the school kitchen staff at Munyonyo Church of Uganda Primary School. We wanted to share the exciting news and pictures, as Suzan was busy saying good bye to her 3-stone fires, learning and getting ready for her new kitchen!

We Welcome Surbhi To Our Team

Great news happening in tandem, as Uganda’s government has now re-established connection to almost all social media channels. Timing could not be any better, as we welcome Surbhi Misra to our team, a multi media and mass communicator, and current post-graduate student for a diploma program in English Journalism at one of India’s premier communications institutes, the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC).

Through the Global Warming Mitigations Sphere Program - a global network of people and projects dedicated to finding climate solutions connecting individuals with sponsors, students with internships, and problems with solutions - we have been able to connect to Surbhi who will be leading Simoshi’s Marketing and Communications department until the 16th of April.

A mental health advocate and a proud feminist, Surbhi thrives on the curiosity to learn something new every day. As we strive to raise awareness on climate change and the sustainable development impact behind our institutional improved cook stoves project in Uganda, we will be working together with Surbhi to educate our audience on why it is important to offset your carbon footprint and what to look for when making the carbon credit choice, through our Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram accounts. Stay tuned!

Social Media Still Blocked

Since 12 January, all social media platforms and messaging applications have been blocked as per a directive from the Government of Uganda, following the unrest prior the presidential elections. Therefore we have not been able to write any new posts or upload pictures in any of our accounts with LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. We miss reading our followers comments, and we are eager to let our readers know about the progress made since the new year started.

We are hopeful February will see us back to normal in many ways. Candidate classes are now back in school (that includes Primary 7, Senior 4 and Senior 6). The rumor says the remaining classes will follow on 23 February.

We are well, alive and kicking!

Stay tuned as we will continue using our social media channels to keep you updated on the latest news.

Covid-19 Economic Relief Fund

We have started the new year with the right foot and great news. Simoshi was successfully selected in a competitive process to participate in the Covid-19 economic relief fund.

Energising Development (ENDEV) is a global multi-donor partnership (implemented by the Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit GIZ) that facilitates access to modern energy in more than 25 countries. In Uganda, Endev has provided the COVID 19 Economic Relief Fund for the cooking energy and off-grid solar sector in order to support firms to cope with the hardships related to the pandemic. Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) was selected by ENDEV to manage such fund.

In the next three months, SImoshi will be assissting 18 Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) primary schools by changing all of their traditional cooking devices to institutional improved cook stoves (IICS). These schools will also benefit from free IICS annual maintenance for five years as a result of Simoshi’s Clean Development Mechanism and the Gold Standard Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda”.

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The pictures above are from this week, setting off from our office as our Project Officers continue to work in the field sensitising school staff and parents about the benefits of using an improved cook stove. The second and third pictures belong to the KCCA Munyonyo Church of Uganda Primary school, a beneficiary of such grant. The kitchen was assessed and saucepans measured as the new IICS are getting ready for manufacturing.

Achieving Long-Lasting Climate Progress

In the face of global warming, it never became more important to consider that an intervention will have to generate sustained value in the years to come. The implementation of climate action and sustainable development in an integrated manner presents an opportunity for businesses to maximise the benefits achieved at all levels. Corporate climate strategies need to generate and capture value, while benefiting society and the planet.

Project developers must also improve in the quality of generated carbon credits to become a valid climate solution, measuring CO2 reductions that deliver environmental and social co-benefits that are monitored and accounted for throughout time, and not just a one off activity that is verified during an auditing exercise.

As we enter into a new era in the race of climate neutrality, lets not forget that carbon credits are not all created equal. “While companies might be tempted to create a portfolio of carbon credits that encompasses their target CO2e volume while minimising costs, they need to ensure their investment is channeled towards projects that deliver long-lasting quality results and have no diverse impact. While in general, the price of a carbon credit and its quality are not correlated, there is evidence that prices of carbon credits from the land sector and many technology development projects are too low to deliver long-lasting quality results”.

Hopefully as we transition to a post Paris era, the market will start seeing more higher quality projects being portrayed at the UNFCCC Climate Neutral Now platform, such as ours with the schools in Uganda. Already the Gold Standard has an interesting variety of carbon credits on sale with sustainable development contributions that significantly boost market credibility.

We Can Always Improve

As part of our commitment to the schools to provide the best products and services, we meet with our provider and manufacturer of institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) Uganda Stove Manufacturers Limited (Ugastove) every two months. Yesterday was one of those meetings at the Ugastove factory, where both Simoshi and Ugastove teams met, to discuss the feedback collected from the school staff and cooks on the IICS performance.

It is mandatory for Simoshi to quarterly survey each IICS installed under its Project Activity. As such, since 2016 we have been meticulously collecting and analyzing the filed data, while also ensuring we can always make positive changes to improve the IICS performance. This is also achieved as we are are always learning from the cooks on how the product can become more user friendly.

Yesterday our discussions were all about chimney connectors. After having IICS being in use for four years, day and night, these small but important pieces play an important role when ensuring the smoke from the firewood combustion is conducted outside through the chimney pipe. We have seen some connectors rusting, others corroding, some removable caps missing as soot is being cleaned, and these are some of the topics discussed as we endeavor to improve our product.

What Are Schools Doing on Climate Change?

I recently came across an article written by Adam Vaughan for the New Scientist, on the activities schools in the UK are getting involved in to reduce their impact on climate change. The example given is rural school King’s Academy Ringmer, in south-east England, which is now saving around 350 tonnes of CO2 annually with a biomass boiler, while also cutting its energy costs by thousands of pounds a year by installing solar panels, a wind turbine and heat pumps that extract heat from the ground. Of course such installations are costly, and usually schools have many burning priorities that need prior attention. Some UK schools between 2011 and 2016 took advantage of government support to fit solar panels, although such capital-intensive projects are not for every school.

I could not resist but making the comparison with what schools are currently doing in Uganda in their efforts to reduce carbon emissions with their cooking activities. An average school of 700 hundred children reduces 90 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually as they move away from using traditional 3-stone fires to institutional improved cook stoves to prepare the school meals. As deforestation is positively impacted, the school enjoys the financial benefit with an average USD 1,000 saved annually from firewood not purchased. The positive impact is greatly enjoyed by the school that desperately needs the saved money for other resources. What makes it even more attractive, is that such investment to purchase the institutional improved cook stoves costs the school approximately USD 1,500 without any government or grant support. But through Simoshi’s intervention, we are able to provide financing during a 15-month period, to allow the school to comfortably pay back for the appliances using the money saved from the firewood NOT purchased.

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Restrictions Are On

It has been a month since schools reopened for candidate classes in all of Uganda. With many restrictions in place and sign posts everywhere, children are strictly following the Minsitry of Health’s Standard Operational Procedures. Teachers are grateful as children are managing to keep their face masks on all day long. Nevertheless, keeping social distance is becoming a challenge when break time is on.

The kitchens are also busy as lunch is still being provided. We are of course happy that at least we are seeing movement again in the classrooms, even if it is just a few classes. This current term will be expended until the 18th of December, to somehow catch up for the lost time. And holidays will be shorter, with all classes resuming on the 11th of January 2021. That is the update from our continuous visits to monitor the kitchen environment, the cooks and the stoves. Pole pole (slowly slowly) we will get there.