Girls & Women In Mind

Our project has a strong gender component. Of course women play a crucial role in the kitchen environment. Women are central when making decisions, from breakfast/linch/supper preparation, serving the children, and ensuring everything is clean and food is always served on time.

Therefore here at Simoshi we make sure to continuously support them in their kitchen transitions as they move away from using traditional cooking practices. We are hand in hand training them on how to achieve the best results from their institutional improved cook stoves (IICS), how to rotate different saucepan capacities to avoid energy lost, how to store their firewood to achieve the best possible combustion, how to clean the ash and soot from the different compartments and chimney sections, and always listening to their needs and suggestions. We work together, we collaborate, we always learn, and because there is always room for improvement!

Proof of such amazing collaboration throughout 2023, saw 136 women continuously trained to achieve the best possible results in the kitchen of 105 participating schools.

USD 17,763 Shared With Schools

Sharing the income generated from the sale of the carbon credits with the end users is not just a statement for Simoshi. It is a reality that it is annually reported as we close each calendar year.

Through our Project Activity registered with the Gold Standard “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda”, we not only acknowledge that schools are the generators of the CO2 emission reductions as they move away from using traditional 3-stone fires to energy efficient cook stoves.

We are also committed to providing various benefits to all participating schools. This includes a free service to all the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) installed since we first started back in 2016. This maintenances takes place every single year, for a period of 10 years, at no cost to the schools.

Throughout 2023, Simoshi maintained all IICS from 105 particitating schools, incurring in a total cost of 65,725,000 Ugandan shillings - the equivalent of USD 17,763.

All maintenance events are conducted throughout the year, with the most intense work performed during the holidays when schools are closed and kitchens are not in operation.

Examples of repairs include replacement of firechamber bricks, plastering of combustion chamber, chimney repairs, welding of corroded body parts, to name just a few. All maintenance events are fully recorded with the detailed scope of work, maintenance officer in charge for performing the task, date, and school representative name that receives the form of proof for maintenance done.

Positive Direct Impact

According to the World Health Organisation, approximately 2.6 billion people, mainly in Africa, continue to cook with dirty fuels on traditional appliances, that cause significant damage to health, particularly for women and children who spend most of their times at home, and for the environment at large.

The Uganda National Alliance for Clean Cooking (UNACC) estimated in 2012, that only 7% of the population were using clean and efficient cook stoves. Similarly, the institutions in Uganda such as schools, health centres, prisons, commercial buildings and restaurants, primarily rely on traditional cooking technologies such as three stone stoves, open fires etc. (Government of Uganda, 2001).

The most prevalent form of cooking fuel in the schools of Uganda is wood with 96% of the schools using it as their main cooking fuel, followed by charcoal with 4% of the schools (Ministry of Education and Sports, 2013).

That is why we are proud to report that during the year 2023, with Simoshi’s intervention supporting schools in their transition to acquiring institutional improved cook stoves (IICS), 95,315 children and school staff enjoyed from a cleaner and healthier environment.

Throughout 2023, 105 schools replaced the traditional 3-stone fires with 376 IICS of different saucepan capacities, resulting in 20,857 boarding students and 78,050 day students and kitchen staff directly being positively impacted with the reduction on firewood consumption and the installation of chimney pipes that ensure the remaining smoke from the firewood combustion is ventilated safely outdoors.

93,315 children and cooks

Enjoyed a smoke-free kitchen environment during 2023

2024 Plans

It is the start of the new year and we have made clear plans to achieve the new objectives for our Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda”, as we continue to support schools in their cooking transitions.

The landscape for project developers is still uncertain. Carbon credits have undergone a lot of scrutiny, which we certainly welcome, but unfortunately the media and the comments from the general public still fail to bring light to those minority projects that do fall under the new codes for good carbon finance practice, are additional, use the right tools to provide clear and transparent emission reduction calculations, achieve various sustainable development goals, and instead focus on the past mistakes of projects with dubious backgrounds.

Of course the above has a direct impact on the demand side, and although we have seen December 2023 with a record 40% increase for carbon offsetting, prices are still not showing any signs of increasing, reflecting the huge efforts made by those project developers that actually deliver high integrity carbon credits.

With the support of SNV and various other generous donors, we are expecting to include 30 new schools under the Project Activity, to the already existing pool of 105 schools that have successfully moved away from using traditional 3-stone fires to energy efficient cook stoves.

Training All Kitchen Staff

We continue sharing the achievements of this year 2023 that now comes to an end, as part of our annual collection of the various indicators monitored from 105 supported schools, as they move away from traditional cooking practices.

818 training sessions

During 2023, Simoshi’s Project Officers conducted 818 training sessions in 105 school kitchens, following the “Kitchen Training Manual” and the “Firewood Best Practice Manual’, to ensure cooks enjoy a smooth transition when using the institutional improved stoves. This same support is provided every year, during a 10-year period, because we want to achieve not only firewood savings, but also a clean and sustainable kitchen environment. This involves a behavioural change and commitment from everyone in the kitchen responsible for preparing the children daily meals.

Supporting 136 Women in the Kitchen

The year 2023 is coming to an end. And this is the time when we compile the vary many indicators we have collected from our 105 participating schools during the year. We are closing our monitoring period, which includes the whole of 2023.

We like to share some of those figures that represent the impact Simoshi’s Project Activity registered with The Gold Standard has had during the year. When it comes to SDG5 Gender Equality, we are proud to say we have trained 136 women in all school kitchens when moving away from using traditional 3-stone fires to the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS).

This training includes numerous sessions throughout the year, where we teach the cooks how to effectively use their new IICS while achieving a clean kitchen environment, but also listening to their concerns and suggestions. Because when we collaborate, we achieve the best results.

Training Never Stops

Changing cooking habits do not happen overnight. When schools move away from using traditional 3-stone fires to institutional improved cook stoves (IICS), a lot of training on how best to operate the new devices and education on all the different benefits from making such change has to happen.

These training sessions are on-going, at least 6 times per year, throughout the 10-year period Simoshi supports the school in such transition. Cooks and school staff might rotate or change, but we ensure to always be there in the kitchen to handhold the school with the correct use of the IICS to achieve a clean kitchen environment.

Yesterday we visited Police Children School Nsambya, and detected a commonly made mistake, when cooks use a smaller size of saucepan in the IICS. As you can see from the video below, the smoke from burning firewood is not pushed through the chimney pipe, and instead it fills the whole kitchen room, making it uncomfortable and unhealthy to all those around there.

Maintenance Season Begins

The time has come for children to celebrate another end of the school year. We are now coming to the end of the academic year 2023. Final exams are underway, many end of the year parties and graduation ceremonies are now taking place. Schools in Uganda will officially close their doors on the 30th of November. And both children and school staff will enjoy their well deserved holidays for the next two months.

For us here at Simoshi it means a busy maintenance season begins. This is the time we use to get the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) repaired as kitchens are not preparing the children’s daily meals. All maintenance events - from replacing bricks or plastering the combustion chamber, to welding corroded body parts and replacing old chimney pipes - are free of cost to the schools, every year, for 10 years. This is possible thanks to the revenues generated from the sale of the carbon credits, as individuals and companies choose Simoshi’s project activity when offsetting their carbon footprint.

Below are some images of this weekend’s work at two different schools in Kampala, where one top ring had to be repaired (it had corroded due to the school overfilling the saucepan), and another school had chimneys in need for replacing as they had become old and rusty (the IICS are in use since 2016!).

New School Joins

Bunamwaya Church of Uganda Primary School has joined our Project Activity over the weekend. Thanks to the kind donation from Herzlack (a vegan cosmetic company based in Germany), this school has managed to move away from a traditional stove construction to the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS).

Although the school year is about to end (schools are closing at the end of November), their current annual firewood expenditure of USD 1,950 will be drastically reduced by at least half, ensuring the school will save almost USD 1,000 during 2024, just by changing their cooking devices.

This amount of money saved means a huge positive impact to a government aided school’s finances, as the income collected from student fees is very low, making it very difficult to cater for other desperate needs. We have many times written on our blog before about the small sizes of food portions, the lack of proper infrastructure, the overcrowded classrooms, etc. The money saved from firewood NOT purchased will allow the school to alleviate some of these pressing needs.

Cheap Comes With Risks

Cheap carbon credits are still easily available for companies or individuals interested in offsetting their carbon footprint. But it comes with a cost of high risk on the integrity of those emission reductions being claimed. As players in the cookstove sector implementing projects for over a decade now, we know pretty well the methodologies and approaches used by other project developers.

One key issue comes with monitoring the usage rate. That means, understanding how often the improved cook stove is used and whether traditional appliances are still in place and again, if used, how often. This is one key figure when calculating the tons of CO2 not released into the atmosphere.

Some projects choose to do a sampling approach, meaning they do not physically follow the stove user and usage, and when time comes for verification, the approved auditors will run a random small sample from those improved cook stoves disseminated and check (via site visits, and phone calls) its usage.

Other projects choose to either use heat sensors that give a very accurate image of how often those improved cook stoves are used, while other projects might go for a census approach, meaning they would follow the improved cook stoves disseminated on a continuous basis to ensure they are actually in use, replacing any other traditional cooking practices.

This census approach is what we are proud to implement at Simoshi. Once the institutional improved cook stove (IICS) is installed, we visit the schools at least 7 times every year, to ensure that all IICS are in use, and that any traditional 3-stone fires are no longer in place. When performing these visits, we also take the opportunity to train the cooks on how to keep the IICS in good condition while also paying attention to achieving a clean kitchen environment.

Of course these monitoring activities come at a cost, and it is reflected on the higher carbon credit prices. But it gives buyers the reassurances the emission reductions HAVE actually taken place, they ARE real, and no random estimations are done. Because every participating school is thoroughly followed throughout the year, giving buyers the necessary confidence when making their carbon neutral claims.

Knowledge Transfer

When a school adopts the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) in their kitchens, children witness the new cooking method every day as they take their lunch (or supper if they are boarders). This is a great opportunity to educate them on all the benefits attached when moving away from traditional 3-stone fires.

It is also a fantastic invaluable opportunity to transfer the knowledge back home, as they now witness a school free of smoke. And there are high chances that when they become adults, they will always look for energy efficient and clean cooking options for their future households.

The video below is a good example of the above, as children tell us their views on the school’s new kitchen.

Children learn at school from the new institutional improved cook stoves

The Consequences on Girls and Women

Women disproportionately endure the negative consequences of traditional cooking practices. Lack of clean cooking prevents many women and girls from accessing education, earning a wage, or starting a business that would deliver financial autonomy.

In Uganda, like in several parts of the world, they typically have little say over household spending, with other purchases prioritised over clean cooking devices. Under-representation of women within executive institutions means that clean cooking also remains low on the political agenda. This is what we continuously see in the school setup. The kitchen is unfortunately the least of their priorities.

As per the latest publication from the International Energy Agency, “A Vision for Clean Cooking Access for All”, the gender equality, health and time-savings benefits of universal clean cooking are immense. Their analysis shows that “there are 2.5 million less premature deaths caused by the fall in air pollution toward 2030, and the average household saves on nearly 1.5 hours a day from the switch, which can instead be spent pursuing education or work. The time-savings from universal access to clean cooking are roughly equal to the working hours put in by the entire Japanese labour force in 2022”.

Dedicated Environmental Activists

Being a Project Developer implementing a carbon project, means a lot of hard work, efforts, and high risks are taken, especially when working in Least Developed Countries. On a daily basis we struggle to fix problems, and against the odds we overcome all sorts of challenges, in the field, and at a macro level, with the structural changes the compliance and voluntary carbon markets are now undergoing.

It still does not stop us to drive significant climate change, community, resilience, food security, social and economic empowerment to many of the most vulnerable and forgotten people and remote places on this planet.

About 90% of the total primary energy consumption in Uganda is generated through biomass: firewood (78.6%), charcoal (5.6%) and crop residues (4.7%). Every year 19,700 people die as a consequence of using 3-stone fires for their daily cooking activities. These traditional stoves have been associated with extremely low efficiency with 93% of the energy generated being lost during cooking. Not only does it result in indoor and outdoor air pollution, but also contributes to regional deforestation and forest degradation - from 1990 and until 2010 more than 39% of the existing forest disappeared.

When you purchase carbon credits from Simoshi, you not only compensate for your unavoidable emissions, but you also make this project activity a reality - it would have never happened in the absence of money generated through carbon credits sales!

Your contribution positively impacts the school finances, reduces air pollution and health related problems for children and cooks, decreases the deforestation impact, reduces CO2 emissions, while also empowering women and children in Uganda. Visit our “Offset” page to learn more how to take action.

Grant Award - SNV & Embassy of Sweden

We have great news to share today, as Simoshi has been the recipient of a grant award from SVN and the Embassy of Sweden, for the Results Based Financing funding mechanism to scale the supply of institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) to 60 new schools in Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono districts.

SNV Netherlands Development Organization in collaboration with Makerere’s College of Engineering, Design, Art, and Technology (CEDAT), and Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) is implementing a four-year (2021-2025), Inclusive Markets for Energy Efficiency in Uganda (IMEU) project. This project is funded by the Embassy of Sweden (EoS) in Kampala, Uganda.

The project aims at contributing to the development of sustainable and inclusive markets for appropriate energy efficient (EE) products and services for households, agribusinesses, commercial facilities, and social institutions in Uganda.

New joining schools will benefit from 10-year free stove maintenance as part of the Project Activity registered with the Gold Standard.

Such support will be exclusively directed to all all new schools joining Simoshi’s Project Activity, to reduce the cost of the IICS by 40%, making energy efficiency more accessible and affordable, as schools move away from using traditional 3-stone fires for their daily cooking needs.

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Food Portions Are Small

It is heartbreaking to see schools struggling to buy food, as prices are rising, and firewood becomes more expensive by the hour. By helping schools move away from traditional 3-stone fires, the school saves at least 50% on firewood purchases, meaning that money saved can be used towards supporting the purchase of food. Per year, a school with 800 day scholars can save up to USD 1,000 from firewood NOT purchased, as they use the institutional improved cook stoves to prepare their daily meals.

When you choose to offset you carbon footprint, remember you are not only supporting the reduction of CO2 into the atmosphere and the deforestation rate. At the same time, you are also giving a helping hand to schools, to improve the quality of life of children and their families in Uganda.

Posho and Beans

That is the most popular dish served at all schools in Uganda. Posho is maize flour, also known as polenta in some parts of the world. Unfortunately, this is a monotonous diet, and aside from becoming a boring menu for most children, it has little nutritional value that can sometimes result in some level of malnutrition.

Contributing towards moving away from traditional 3-stone fires to institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) when cooking, means schools can used the money saved from firewood not purchased, to increase food portions and buy a variety of other foods, such as rice, matooke (steamed bananas) and greens. Remember, an average school with 800 pupils can save between USD 700 to USD 900 per year when moving away from traditional cooking practices (depending on the number of boarding and day scholars).

Term III of 2023

The last school term for this year has now started and children will be busy preparing for their final examinations. As per the official government calendar, schools will close their doors on the 1st of December. Then, a well deserved rest awaits for two full months.

For us, no rest during the school holiday because we will be taking advantage of closed kitchens to make all the free improved cook stove repairs. And while these coming two months come to an end, we continue visiting new schools that call us to assess their kitchens and see how we can help them to move away from their traditional cooking practices.

No Children Should Go Hungry

Although Simoshi’s Project Activity registered with the Gold Standard achieves 9 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it does not monitor SDG2 “Zero hunger”, the global issue of hunger and food insecurity that has shown an alarming increase since 2015, a trend exacerbated by a combination of factors including the pandemic, conflict, climate change, and deepening inequalities.

Nevertheless, the indirect contribution the project makes towards this goal comes through the monetary savings a school achieves when moving away from a 3-stone fire to the energy efficient cook stoves. A school with approximately 800 day students will save $1,200 in firewood not purchased.

This means more money can be spent in urgent needs such as food. The role of school feeding their students is crucial. It results in increased enrolment and improved retention. It also improves cognitive abilities and learning capacity, and reduces absenteeism. The meals provide nutrients necessary for brain development, reducing anaemia and stunting, and increasing immunity. These results are even more pronounced for girls and children living in poverty, defined as living on less than a dollar a day.

Traditional vs Improved

So much has been written and said about using traditional 3-stone fires for cooking. But an image is worth a million words, and this video clearly shows the drastic difference when using an institutional improved cook stove (IICS). Today, more than 40% of the population in Africa lives without access to electricity, and 70% without access to clean cooking fuels. The socioeconomic impacts of this are huge.

The most obvious when watching this video is, at first sight, is the quantity of firewood used between one and the other. But there are many benefits that can be enjoyed when moving away from traditional cooking practices. For example, do you know what contributes to 3.7 million premature deaths annually, mainly women and children?

Inhaling hazardous smoke from traditional stoves and open fires causes millions of premature deaths annually, disproportionately affecting women and children. The arduous task of collecting firewood also hinders educational and employment opportunities and strains natural resources – compounding costs for vulnerable populations.

At Kitebi Secondary school we can see both cooking systems in use as the improved cook stoves are being repaired during the holidays.

Testing Cohort 2016

Every year we collect from the field all the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) of 30 litres capacity that were installed in different schools back in 2016. We follow the Water Boiling Test (WBT) protocol to ensure the thermal efficiency is still performing at its highest. Imagine these IICS have been in use for the past 7 years. Nevertheless their thermal efficiency is above 27% because we repair them every year. If we didn’t, then their combustion chamber would be totally destroyed, and their thermal efficiency would go down to 10%, consuming a lot of firewood just like a 3-stone fireplace.

Prior the testing exercise taking place, all the equipment used is calibrated at the Uganda National Bureau of Standards. The firewood was purchased with 6 month in advance, to ensure the optimal water moisture content.