SOLAR OVEN PROJECT

The number one health problem in Samburu is not AIDS, malaria, or tuberculosis: it's respiratory illness from cooking fires!

KARE's Solar Oven Project not only protects forests, reduces respiratory illness, and decreases the labor of women and children who collect the wood, it's also become a small business enterprise for local communities and families. Once the first oven was constructed, the women's group involved in the training soon afterwards developed a small solar oven business of their own, further increasing their income and helping to stabilize the local economy. During the recent drought and cholera outbreak, the ovens were used to pasteurize water, reducing cholera.

photo of woman using solar oven

The Benefits of Solar Cooking

  • Reduces deforestation
  • Dramatically reduces respiratory illness, the primary health risk in Samburu
  • Reduces pollution, black carbon and soot
  • Reduces need for charcoal production
  • Reduces the need for long trips to collect firewood outside the safety of the boma
  • No need to tend a fire, freeing women for other activities while food is cooking
  • The production of the solar cookers provides income-generating opportunities.
  • Provides safe drinking water –pasteurization can kill waterborne pathogens.

Two solar cookers can save ONE TON of wood each year!
Breathing cooking smoke inside a house is the equivalent of consuming two packs of cigarettes a day. (WHO)
Solar cooking ovens help achieve 7 of the 8 UN millennium development goals. (WHO)


Help provide more familes with solar cookers. Just $50 supports one family by providing two solar cookers, training, and cookware.