Clean Firewood Combustion

When firewood is burned in good conditions for a fire, it produces very little smoke or unhealthy particulate matter. Burning dry firewood makes all the difference: it burns hotter and cleaner and is also 30 percent more efficient than logs with a high moisture content. Firewood that has been split, dried, and stored under cover for at least a year burns best and produces fewer harmful chemicals that remain in your system for years.

That is why continuously training the cooks at schools on how to best store the firewood is an important part of our programme. The training is also monitored, at least 6 times every year, to ensure the school follows the “Best Firewood Practice Manual”, because cleaner firewood burning not only means higher savings, but also a healthier environment for all.

Maintenance Ready

The end of school Term 1 is around the corner. Schools will break off on Friday 5 of May, and children will be back from their holidays on Monday 27 May, to commence with Term 2.

The holiday period is the opportunity for us to get our hands on all those institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) that need repairs. Schools receive free IICS maintenance anytime of the year, whenever needed, for a period of 10 years.

Lately, we have been experiencing corrosion on the connectors than allow the smoke to get pushed from the combustion chamber towards the chimney pipe and outside the kitchen building.

Today we collected 30 connectors that will be installed in several schools very soon, to ensure cooks continue to enjoy a smokeless kitchen environment!

New Issuance 12,540 VERs

Great news to share, as we have new carbon credits in stock. These emission reductions belong to the year 2023, where 105 schools successfully moved away from using 3-stone fires, and subsequently, reduced 12,540 tons of carbon dioxide during 365 full days. The carbon credits are the result of a lot of hard work, team effort, because without the continuous collaboration of school staff and cooks, such carbon credits would have never been issued by The Gold Standard.

Achievements are so many, and we have summarised them in the picture here below, that represent the positive impacts reflected on 9 Sustainable Development Goals.

Cooking: A Decent Job?

My favourite side of this story, the one we write together with our colleagues at Simoshi and its partners every day, is the incredible impact we make in the quality of the working environment for those involved when preparing the children’s daily meals.

The workplace should be a place where people feel happy, engaged, safe, inspired. Happiness at work reduces stress, raises your energy by 65% and boosts productivity as much as 31%. The kitchen space and the work of the cooks should be a comfortable environment, because they already experience the difficulties of hot food exposure, equipment and hot metal surfaces, withstanding the pressure of standing many hours at a time, and lifting heavy saucepans.

If the difficulties above are enhanced by the use of traditional 3-stone fireplaces, the workplace becomes intolerable. The fire flames becoming a constant threat and the smoke precluding the normal breathing are just a few of what the pictures show here below.

The positive impact in the lives of a cook the introduction of institutional improved cook stoves have in a school kitchen is something we are not only proud of here at Simoshi, but it is also a reminder that is it worth all the efforts to keep on trying, to get as many schools as we can, away from traditional cooking practices.

What We Achieved In 2023

As we prepare for great announcements because SustainCert (the validation and verification body for Gold Standard) just finalised our fifth Performance review, and the issuance of 12,540 new carbon credits is imminent, we review what we have achieved during the year 2023.

With 105 schools included under the Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves in Uganda” and 376 institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) installed, continuously monitored and repaired of different saucepan capacities (from 30 litres to 600 litres), 15,186 tons of firewood were saved throughout the whole year, as schools successfully moved away from traditional cooking practices.

For visual purposes only (but the information we love to compare our data to) is foresters’s rule of thumb when measuring standing trees: if you can hug a tree and your fingers just overlap it, it will be about 40 cm. “diameter breast height”, roughly one ton of wet firewood. Therefore, let’s imagine 15,186 of those trees still standing today, because schools avoided cutting them down during 2023, with their energy efficient cooking technology! That is a gorgeous achievement.

There are approximately 22,000 schools in Uganda still using traditional 3-stone fires to prepare the children’s daily meals. By simply changing their cooking practices and using IICS, it would mean 3,181,828 trees could be saved every year…..That is a gorgeous dream.

Teaching Children Through Kitchen Improvements

We filmed this short video during our first visit when installing the institutional improved cook stoves in a primary school in Kawanda. When children were asked whether we should keep the trees standing or not, they all replied we should chop them off.....

Teachers slowly introduced the benefit of keeping our trees standing, and the changes in the school kitchen helped to better understand how the firewood consumption and subsequent reduction on smoke directly benefited everyone at school.

This is a great opportunity for children to share their new experiences back home, as parents usually cook with traditional stoves too. The transfer of knowledge is a great tool that will also have a positive impact in the cooking practices at the household level.

On Our Way For Repairs

Maintenance of institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) never stops. Early this morning, our colleague Robert had prepared all the material necessary to do the free repairs at 3 schools: Queen of Peace primary School, Uganda Martyrs Primary School, and Kasubi Church of Uganda Primary School.

Our commitment to supporting schools throughout a 10-year period includes free IICS maintenance. Every year we ensure the efficiency of the stoves are kept to their maximum standards. Whatever is needed, whenever is needed, we are always there with the necessary parts to replace, or repair, and have the stove performing and looking like new. For example, throughout 2023, we spent 65,725,000 Ugandan Shillings repairing IICS on 105 participating schools. This is the equivalent to USD 17,000.

Today we had focused on replacing corroded chimney pipes and connectors. It is not necessary to wait for the holiday period to perform this kind of maintenance event, the school can continue using the IICS while repairs are being made.

Never Stop Checking

Before.

This is the typical example that supports a continuous monitoring approach to the school kitchen environment. What it is sometimes explained as a census approach, it means we are checking the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) every other month - meaning at least 6 time per year - for the 10-year period Simoshi agrees to support the schools in their cooking transformation.

Malaika Kindergarten and Primary School joined our project activity in March 2022. During our routine monitoring visits last month we found the cook had started to light a traditional 3-stone fire in the kitchen. Immediately we communicated with the school head teacher to discuss the purchase of a new IICS, and today Sunday the kitchen is fully cooking again with energy efficient appliances only. This is the result of a dedicated team of project officers that are seriously checking the usage of the IICS of over 110 participating schools, as part of our commitment to ensure emission reductions are REAL.

After.

Women’s Day

Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by climate change as well as indoor air pollution. - at higher risk of health impacts, food insecurity and loss of livelihoods. They are instrumental when delivering change, and we will keep supporting them through the transition to more clean and efficient cooking practices.

Everyday we celebrate our little girls that one day will be the decision makers at their homes. Hoping that knowledge transfer from what is seen at the school kitchen is well adopted when making choices for their personal cooking activities.

Not All Stoves Are The Same

It breaks our hearts to find in some school kitchens, when once upon a time, a new stove was constructed but today looks completely destroyed. There is no difference when it comes to firewood consumption or air quality when comparing it to a traditional 3-stone fireplace.

The lack of continuous maintenance leaves the stove’s combustion chambers broken, and as you can see from the pictures here below, they are just “holes” with tiles surrounding it.

Chimneys are usually blocked with soot, corroded or dismantled, so all the smoke from the firewood combustion finds no way outside the building, leaving cooks badly exposed to indoor air pollution.

Carbon finance has allowed us to use part of the revenues accrued from the sale of the carbon credits to repair all institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) for free, for a period of 10 years, to all participating schools.

For example, during 2023, a total of 65,725,000 Ugandan Shillings was spent repairing the IICS from 105 schools.

From Herzlack With Love

Yesterday we had the pleasure of delivering some gifts sent by our generous donor from Germany, Herzlack, who has not only been supporting several schools with their transition to energy efficient cooking practices throughout 2023. Herzlack is a beauty company that manufactures vegan nail polish, and they wanted to gift their beautiful nail products to the teachers in those same schools they are supporting. The little children from grade 1 were also lucky winners, and got some yummy gummy bears to share during the break.

Yesterday I felt very lucky to receive all the smiles and gratitude from everyone at Bunamwaya Church of Uganda Primary School, so I wanted to share the pictures of the day, as we checked on the kitchen to ensure daily cooking is efficiently happening, with a kitchen free of smoke and reduction in firewood consumption achieved at its highest!

Tough Delivery

Our participating schools grow and the population increases, meaning they also need to enlarge their kitchens. More institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) are needed and this is the case of St. Angella Primary School in Kisaasi, who ordered a new IICS of 170 litres capacity, to add to their existing pool of 4 IICS that have been in operation since 2019.

Delivery can sometimes become challenging, because access to the kitchen can be far from the entrance, the truck cannot access the building where the IICS should be installed. This time around, not only was the kitchen far, but the passage was very narrow, obliging us to destroy some of the walls to make it wide enough for the IICS to pass through. Below are some images of the struggle but successful Sunday, with the cooks happily giving a helping hand to make this happen.

Back to School!

How exciting it is to be in the classrooms on the first day of school! Everyone is so happy to see their friends and teachers again, after two full months of holidays. We paid a visit to five schools along Busabala road this morning together, with Aziz Wakibi, as we conducted the monitoring field visits for the project activity’s fifth verification exercise.

New School Year

It is “back to school” time! Children are excited to go back to see their friends, and schools are now busy getting the compound and classrooms ready to welcome them.

Government aided schools will kick-off classes on Monday 5th of February. Just over one more week to go.

We have taken these long holiday period (2 months) to repair all institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) and inspect the kitchen infrastructure of all 105 schools included and supported under our Project Activity. Sometimes, our Project Officers’ trained eye can spot problems that escapes school staff. Not only at the IICS level, but also at the kitchen building. For example, roofing problems with metal sheets leakages which during the rainy season can damage the IICS combustion chamber or saucepans with holes that need replacing, just to name a few.

There is also time for enjoying some board games - here I caught children playing Ludo, while carpenters are busy building new desks and benches.

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.