Darfur: The Women and the Stoves

Yesterday, my full attention was caught by a CNN report about a 17-year old who has taken action to help the women of Darfur. Spencer Brodsky learned about the women in risk of being violated when searching for firewood for cooking outside the limits of their refugee camps. Firewood is scarce in the desert and it takes many hours to do the task.

At US$ 30 each, Brodsky has raised enough money to buy and ship 420 stoves to Darfur.

The Darfur stove consumes much less firewood than traditional 3-stone and clay stoves and is comparatively safer. The fully enclosed stove reduces the danger of stick-and-straw shelters from burning down and the reduced smoke production minimizes the risk of getting lung disease. And a very important benefit with the stove is that it requires women to gather less firewood thus minimizing their time outside the camps and exposure to violence.

Read more about the Darfur stove in this link
http://www.darfurstoves.org/
and the CNN article about Spencer Brodsky in this one
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/12/27/stoves.darfur/

"The power of one. The power of change. The power to make a difference."