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Page of Community Conservation Initiative, Kenya (CCI-Kenya)Hi, I live on Fair Isle, the remotest inhabited island in UK, where we use a combination of the UK's first commercial wind generator, solar power and a back-up deisel generator to supply our local electricity needs.When I'm not at home, I'm busy travelling Kenya as a volunteer project facilitator/community conservation co-ordinator for 3 or 4 months each year. Whilst in Kenya I travel using public transport and usually stay in very basic accommodation with local community groups in various different parts of the country - such as a traditional maasai manyatta (a small 2-roomed hut built using acacia twigs and cow-dung, with no chimney and only 2 or 3 tiny hand-sized 'windows') - where homes are without gas, electricity or running water. Cooking is done over the three traditional hearth stones or using an energy-saving 'jiko', either outside or (more often than not) in a smoke-filled dwelling house Energy-wise, I don't have a car and have been using energy-saving lightbulbs throughout my home in the UK for the past 15 years or so. I'm a regular user of a Cooking Basket (a type of fuel-less cooker based on old-fashioned hay-box technology) both at home in UK and in Kenya itself, where (amongst many other things) I give practical demonstrations of its use to communities in a variety of environments from towns and cities to rain forests and semi-arid areas. My Cooking Basket at home in UK was made for me by a community group in the endangered Kakamega rain forest in Kenya back in 2003. I have since delivered another Cooking Basket from Kakamega to a local maasai community in western Mukogodo, Laikipia. At my remote home in the relatively affluent UK I use gas for cooking, as electricity or firewood are not an option. I can say that before I began using the Cooking Basket at home 1 large red gas cylinder normally lasted me 3 months. During the last 3 years since I starting to use the Cooking Basket regularly at home, 1 large gas cylinder now lasts me around 5 months. That's a big saving on cooking fuel and also a consequent reduction in carbon emissions which could also be easily replicated by other households around the country. During my time in Kenya, I have been able to show that the use of a Cooking Basket also makes a huge reduction in the use of firewood and charcoal in rain forests and semi-arid areas,too. In poorer, less affluent countries, where local women and children generally have to spend a great deal of time fetching and carrying firewood, charcoal and water, as well as having to spend much of their time in very smoky living conditions, a Cooking Basket could help to make a big improvement to their lives, livelihoods and also their health....The Cooking Basket can also be used in conjunction with other fuel-efficient stoves, thereby increasing the benefits of their use. BIG QUESTION...How can we make Cooking Baskets more globally trendy??? Potentially every household could have one (both rich and poor) as they can be made relatively cheaply and simply using local materials and the consequent reduction in global carbon emissions would be tremendous. In January 2007, I set up a 'Cooking in a Basket' blogspot to try to help promote the use of Cooking Baskets and hay box technology more widely. If you are also able to help promote Cooking Baskets or hay-box technology and are able to make some helpful contributions to the blog, please post your comments, recipes and other relevant information at http://www.cookinginabasket.blogspot.com. For more info about my work with CCI-Kenya, Cooking Baskets and local community groups in Kenya, etc please visit http://www.cci-kenya.blogspot.com and http://www.communityconservation-initiative.org.uk, and, of course, http://www.cookinginabasket.blogspot.com Signed: Elizabeth Riddiford. Community Conservation Initiative, Kenya (CCI-Kenya) 5 January 2007. Edited 10 April 2007 Categories: Retained Heat Cookers| Kenya | |
Page created:
04 January 2007; Last edited:
13 April 2007; Version: 6 | |
Pagename: User:CommunityConservationInitiativeKenya(cci-kenya) @HEDON: URDA | |
