The Resilience of Women

The resilience of women cooking with traditional three-stone fires is a powerful and multifaceted story of survival, adaptation, and strength in the face of systemic challenges.

95% of schools in Uganda are still cooking with firewood on traditional 3-stone fires or inefficient stove constructions.

Nevertheless, there is a story to tell under such headline:

1. Symbol of Endurance and Responsibility

The three-stone fire, one of the oldest and simplest cooking methods, remains widely used in many rural and marginalized communities, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. Women who cook on these stoves demonstrate resilience in the face of:

• Poverty and limited access to modern energy

• Health risks (from smoke inhalation)

• Environmental pressures (deforestation and fuel scarcity)

• Time burdens (hours spent gathering firewood)

Despite these obstacles, women continue to ensure children are fed, often under physically demanding and hazardous conditions.

2. Health and Environmental Sacrifices

Using three-stone fires indoors or in poorly ventilated areas results in chronic exposure to smoke, leading to respiratory diseases, eye problems, and even increased mortality. Women and children are disproportionately affected. Yet, they persist, adapting and finding ways to shield children from smoke, protect their own lungs, and still prepare meals.

At the same time, they are often acutely aware of environmental degradation caused by firewood consumption, and many make efforts to use fuel efficiently — through slower cooking techniques or shared cooking tasks.

The image of a woman cooking over a three-stone fire is a portrait of quiet strength — not by choice, but necessity. Her resilience is a daily act of care, sacrifice, and perseverance. Yet true empowerment comes when this resilience is matched by investment, innovation, and inclusion that relieve her of the burdens she shouldn’t have to carry alone. It is one of Simoshi’s core objectives, as we continue to use carbon finance to support over 120 schools in Uganda, providing a clean and decent cooking environment.

Launch of National Climate Change Mechanisms

Today is a very important day for Uganda, as it officially launches its Climate Change Regulations 2025.

As the Commissioner of the Climate Change Department Mrs Margaret Athieno stated, trading within the carbon markets is going to be very transparent.

We are very proud to announce that Simoshi’s Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda” has been approved by the Climate Change Department to transition to the new Paris Agreement Carbon Mechanism (PACM).

This means that our activities are aligned with the latest Ugandan climate regulations, while, moving forward, the carbon credits generated by our intervention, will be able to obtain a corresponding adjustment for international transfers.

Term II Starts Today

Off we go with the second school term of the year, and children will break off for their next holiday on Friday 22 of August.

Throughout this time, our Project Officers will be busy monitoring the kitchens and the use of every institutional improved cook stove (IICS).

We conduct a census approach to verify the IICS usage rate, visiting and monitoring ALL schools included in the project. The institutional improved cook stoves' usage and kitchen environment are monitored at least 6 times during the year (two times per school term) and checks are made to ensure that the replaced traditional stoves have been dismantled and are no longer in use. 

Emission reductions are robustly quantified to reinforce the methodological approach used, with baseline fuel usage surveys conducted ex-ante, followed up by monitoring the specific firewood consumption, three times a year, to confirm a minimum 50% savings are achieved from all participating schools.

This means that during this second term, the number of children enrolled will be collected, together with the number of teaching and no-teaching staff. The amount of firewood spent in the local currency (Ugandan Shillings) is also captured, to ensure a minimum 50% savings are achieved.

Small Food Portions

We have seen a rise of inflation during the past months, and the primary driver of this has been was a recent dry spell that affected crop yields and reduced the availability of fresh produce, leading to higher prices on items such as beans, which are the primary food source for all schools in Uganda.

We have noticed this first hand during the past school term, with schools reducing by 20% the kilos of beans purchased, increasing the litres of water used to boil them instead, and serving the posho (maize meal) with fewer beans and more soup.

This is a continuous reminder that all firewood savings achieved contribute not only towards supporting the environment but also helping schools to use the money saved from firewood not purchased, into buying food for the children.

A GS Visit To Kakungulu

We were happy to host some colleagues from The Gold Standard Foundation today and together visited the kitchen at Kakungulu Memorial Secondary School. This school prepares daily meals for 2,000 boarding students.

Claire Willers, Senior Manager Market Relations, and Maria Ndagire, Officer Climate Impact, are currently attending the East Africa Carbon Markets Forum 2025 taking place in Kampala on the 8th and 9th of May. We were delighted to have them learn more about Simoshi’s field work as they interviewed John, the school Head Cook.

We are sharing some pictures of the visit here below. Unfortunately we did not find any students around because schools are currently closed on holidays. Term II will be commencing on Monday 26th of May.

First School Term Done!

We have reached to the end of April, also marking the end of the first school term. Remember, two more school terms lie ahead before we finish the school year early December.

For the next three weeks, children and school staff will be enjoying a well deserved break.

And for us at Simoshi, we will be taking advantage of closed kitchens and institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) not in used, to provide the free annual maintenance.

The most popular damage found in the IICS is the breakage of the plastering around the insulation bricks of the combustion chambers. This is totally expected as IICS are under intense heat and fire every single day.

Once the IICS are plastered using a combination of clay, maica and cement, three additional days are needed to allow for proper drying. This is why it is crucial for us to use the holiday period to perform all necessary repairs.

Fixing The Problem

It is amazing to learn about all the progress achieved with technology, artificial intelligence, and today we read the news that a 6 female crew made it to space with Blue Origin’s mission.

In the meantime, in this beautiful country, like in many other parts of this continent, schools are still cooking like in the Stone Age. It is such a physical demanding experience, it needs a lot of health and power. You are constantly adjusting the firewood pieces and flame to control the heat. While the area gets very smoky and difficult to breathe. Eyes can hardly stay open for long, and you will end up smelling smoke for the rest of the day.

Cooking on a 2-stone fire is humble and hard, but it is a constant reminder that we need to keep on pushing towards helping as many as possible to ensure they can access an energy efficient cook stove, and eventually, use the cleanest form of cooking: electricity, which in Uganda is 99% renewable.

Images below were taken early this morning from the school’s two female crew responsible for the cooking of 700 day scholars in Kampala.

Everybody Helps

We are now in the middle of the rainy season in Kampala. It can be unfortunate to many, as usually children walk long distances to reach school. And they lack appropriate water proof clothing or even an umbrella.

Nevertheless, cooks and matrons sleep at the school premises, to ensure they open the kitchen early and food can be served on time, come rain or sunshine.

This morning I found five girls giving the cook a helping hand with sorting the beans, and bringing the water with the jerrycans. I know children should be in the classrooms….but today, with the bad weather, some teachers did not make it on time either. The hardships and beauties of making it happen with all the challenges.

Steam, Not Smoke

Today we paid a visit to St. Gyaviira Primary School, where 800 primary children are benefiting from government aid for their education.

This schools has been using the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) since term 3 last year. It was great to see the children sharing their comments about their perception of the air inside the kitchen building, as they lined up to get their lunch served.

Remember these IICS still consume firewood, and as such, smoke can sometimes escape from the combustion of firewood. Nevertheless, and as you can see from the video below, this smoke pollution is highly minimized through the installation of chimney pipes that push the smoke outside the building.

We also teach the schools to build a firewood shelter to store firewood away from rains. Remember water does not burn, therefore drier wood not only reduces the amount of air pollution, but efficiency also improves, helping schools save even further. You can also watch here this very important concept we share with the schools.

Achievements Throughout 2024

Our registered carbon project has been closing, for the past 8 years, its monitoring periods on every 31st of December, to account for a full year of activities. These activities are externally audited by the approved Gold Standard auditor. Many indicators are collected throughout the year, and a minimum of 6 visits are conducted at each participating school under the Project Activity.

During 2024, 115 schools in Uganda reduced 13,253 tons of carbon dioxide from their daily cooking activities, as they moved away from traditional 3-stone fire places, to 451 energy efficient institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) of different saucepan capacities (ranging from 30 litres to 450 litres saucepans).

From these 115 schools, 22,754 were children in boarding modality, and 83,126 were day scholars, teachers and school staff, making a total of 105,880 individuals that enjoyed a healthier school environment.

The schools achieved an average of 50% reduction in firewood consumption when moving away from their old cooking practices, which translated into 130,787,333 Ugandan shillings (USD 35,832) saved from firewood not purchased. This is the equivalent of 16,258 tons of firewood not consumed.

Throughout the year, we repaired all the IICS to ensure the maximum savings for the schools and the cleanest combustion was achieved. Therefore, we spent 62,437,000 Ugandan shillings (USD 17,100) as part of Simoshi’s commitment to provide free maintenance to all schools for a 10-year period.

Fantastic achievements galore and we cannot stop enumerating good news! We continuously trained 400 Kitchen staff, out of which 139 were ladies, and conducted 814 training sessions to every participating school, on the best firewood management practices, and the effective use of the IICS to achieve the best clean kitchen environment. Our Project Officers also conducted 825 kitchen assessments to align those best practices to the kitchen infrastructure.

115 schools + 451 IICS + 105,880 children and staff + 16,258 tons of firewood saved + USD 17,100 spent on stove maintenance

From The Classroom

I am sharing a video I prepared last week as I visited Karen Kindergarten and Primary, a school that joined our Project Activity back in 2019.

It is a simple video but a powerful message, I hope, to express our gratitude for the dedicated story about Simoshi’s history on the latest published “Buyer’s Guide to High Quality Cookstove Carbon Credits”. Little children from P1 helped me by adding an extra pinch of happiness to my lines 🤗

Nine Years Today

Today we celebrate an amazing milestone, as we make 9 years since our first institutional improved cook stove (IICS) was installed.

Gangu Muslim Primary School was the first school to join our Project Activity. And since then (like all other schools under our carbon finance programme) they have been successfully saving at least 50% of firewood when compared to their old 3-stone fireplaces.

This would have never happened without the sale of the carbon credits that are generated by the changes in the schools’ cooking practices, and the kitchen environment.

With the revenue accrued from the sale of the carbon credits, we have been able to repair those IICS in use for the past 9 years, for free, every single year! It is a wonderful day to celebrate such effective monitoring approach and collaboration from all those involved in the school kitchens that make such achievement a tangible success.

Buyer's Guide to High-Quality Cookstove Carbon Credits

The Buyer’s Guide to High-Quality Carbon Credits was officially launched last week at the New York Stock Exchange, and offers a powerful opportunity for companies and individuals to understand and convert their carbon emissions liabilities into meaningful impact for communities that are in desperate need as a result of climate change.

This guide was developed by several important players in the cooking and carbon sectors, to help businesses find the highest integrity and highest impact projects to support, as they take responsibility for their on-going climate impact, or those who need reassurances for the type of carbon credits they buy as they offset their carbon footprint as part of their net zero goal strategies. “The Buyer’s Guide provides a practical roadmap for companies and investors seeking to purchase carbon credits that meet the highest standards of environmental integrity and social responsibility” stated the Clean Cooking Alliance during the launch.

Simoshi is very proud to have been featured in this guide (page 28) as an exemplary project model, that has been delivering high quality and impact to the local communities for the past nine years, through its registered Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda” with the Gold Standard.

Saucepans Leaking

For the past nine years we have learned an incredible amount of information from the school kitchens. And it never stops. Continuously we adjust our monitoring exercises, and the specific indicators we monitor, because as the years go by, and the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) age, a wealth of knowledge comes with it. Although they might look as “problems” at a first glance, they are opportunities to adjust our training guides to become even better.

Physically testing each saucepan in the kitchen is now essential. In the past, we would interview the cooks about any water being seen inside the IICS (either from broken saucepans or damaged building roofs). Cooks could overview such problems, or they could complain to the school officials without having any response to fixing such issues.

This year we have implemented a thorough filing and follow up of such issues identified by Simoshi’s Project Officers, to ensure the problems are resolved by giving Head Teachers a deadline for resolution. Subsequently future IICS corrosion will avoided saving in expensive maintenance costs.

High Integrity Matters

Supporting sustainable development around the world, particularly in countries that are the poorest and most vulnerable to climate change is crucial as leaders, businesses, and civil society take action on transparent and equitable climate action.

Schools in Uganda struggle with their kitchens and over 22,000 of them are still cooking today with 3-stone fires.

For those that choose to offset their residual emissions, always remember research shows that the global use of carbon markets – as long as they are high-integrity – could allow the world to nearly double climate ambition relative to current Paris pledges over 2020-2035, all without increasing total costs. By unlocking additional finance that would not otherwise be available, Simoshi can provide crucial support to schools, build resilience, and drive positive sustainable development outcomes for a full decade as it handholds over 120 schools in their cooking transitions.

In Memory of Francis

Last week we visited Tropical High School, a school that joined our Project Activity last year. This was our first visit since the school reopened its doors for the first school term.

We are always excited to meet our friends once again as we go back to the usual training routine on how to best operate the institutional improved cook stoves.

Unfortunately this time we got to learn the bad news that the cook Francis Muhawenimana did not survive a theft attack in the late hours at a nearby road. Our thoughts are with his wife and three children he leaves behind. He will be dearly missed.

The School Year Is On

Schools officially started yesterday! The school calendar year 2025 is on. The streets of Kampala went back to the usuals buzz, traffic jam and early commuters getting children to their classrooms.

From our side, we have managed to get all the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) repaired on time, so kitchens are back fully operational with their appliances in good shape.

It is now the time to continue reinforcing the training of all cooks and kitchen staff, to ensure they achieve the most firewood savings, reduce on the smoke, and work in a clean and safe kitchen environment.

At the same time, we also monitor the condition of the IICS, to take quick action in case an urgent repair is needed, that cannot wait until the next holiday period.

Performance Review no. 6

Today we have finished with our sixth verification field visit, where 14 schools were randomly sampled by the verification body 4K Science Private Limited.

The monitoring period included 115 schools that were supported under the Project Activity from 01/01/2024 and until 31/12/2024.

Throughout the 3 past days, we had great feedback from all cooks interviewed, and were pleased to find all kitchens fully transitioned to the institutional improved cook stoves achieving at least half firewood savings, when compared to their former 3 stone fires.

Below are some pictures from the Local Expert in the field, collecting data, checking on the stoves used and their corresponding serial numbers, training records, and more!

No Supervision On Holidays

We have been writing quite a lot throughout this month of January about the problems encountered in the school kitchens, as these should be, in theory, closed, due to holidays. Nevertheless, many of the kitchens are still operational, even if no students are attending classes. Several school staff live within the school premises, and they have access to the kitchen, so they are using the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) to cook their personal meals on a daily basis.

And this is when problems start. No supervision is around from the school offices or management, and when a solution is needed, help can not be provided. The picture below was taken at a secondary school in Kisaasi, that has 7 institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) since 2023. When visiting them today for the free IICS maintenance, we found one of the cooks using a 3-stone fire inside the same kitchen building. She explained that her saucepans had started leaking, so nobody was in the administration block to help her with the money needed for the repairs.

It is a real pity to see her struggling with the smoke. Common sources of air pollution in Uganda include the use of solid fuels in homes like wood, charcoal and dried animal dung. This mixture of air pollution can generate a range of air pollutants which can affect her health in different ways, especially cardiovascular diseases.

Unfortunately, estimates of levels of air pollution show “they are high in Africa and getting worse, especially in urban areas. Levels of air pollution are, on average, three times higher than those observed in high-income regions such as Europe. Overall, 60% of African countries experienced an increase in airborne pollution particles between 2010 and 2019”.

Holidays Bring Problems

During holidays, most schools continue to use the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) for the staff that live within the school premises.

This is very unfortunate, because despite our continuous training to the cooks, they mistakenly use the wrong IICS saucepan sizes. Because they cook for fewer people, they use small containers in bigger stove diameters.

This mistake creates an accelerated damage to the combustion chamber, corrosion to the stove inner jacket, and excessive and unnecessary unhealthy smoke inside the kitchen building.

The video below was taken earlier this week at one of the participating schools under our Project Activity, and shows exactly what we are describing.