By Israel Bulus, Kaduna
A Non-Governmental Organization, Women Initiate for Sustainable Environment (WISE), with Nenu Engineering Limited in collaboration with the Kaduna State Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, has on Friday sensitized and distributed clean cookstoves to 400 women.
News reports that the initiative was also supported by the Federal Ministry of Environment and Women’s Earth Alliance.
The exercise, which was done at a one-day clean cookstoves awareness, advocacy, demand, and distribution drive in Kaduna state, tagged, ‘Empowering lives and saving our planet one clean cook stove at a time’.
The Executive Director of WISE, Mrs Olanike Olugboji-Daramola, said the gesture was aimed at preserving the atmosphere while protecting it from global warming.
She noted that the earth is getting hotter, where rainfall could no longer be predicted due to human activities such as felling down trees for energy and other purposes.
Olugboji-Daramola said that across the country, WISE had distributed over 60,000 clean cookstoves and also raised over 1,860 clean cookstoves entrepreneurs and advocates across the country.
She explained that in 2013, she came across World Health Organization (WHO) statistics which stated that 98,000 Nigerian women died from smoke-related illnesses.
The figures, she said, made Nigerian women top the list of countries where women die of smoke-related illnesses.
“WISE research found out that women who cook three square meals for their households in small enclosed spaces with fire woods were ignorant of the smoke they inhaled, which posed challenges to their health.
“People sometimes wonder where those frying beans cakes and other things on streets go to after some years in the business; a lot of them are on sick beds, which most of the time is traced to the smoke they inhaled over time while in business,” she said.
Speaking further, she also said that the same WHO published a report which says that women who cook three square meals over an open fire are estimated to smoke between 23 to 24 packets of cigarettes in that day.
By promoting the use of clean cookstoves, Olugboji-Daramola said it would help women solve the problem of inhaling bad smoke by leveraging its efficiency.
Earlier, the Kaduna State Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr Abubakar Buba, described the clean cookstoves initiative as a win-win.
He said the stoves, which reduce carbon emissions to the atmosphere, which is affecting climate change in the modern world, would equally reduce the use of firewood for cooking, which has a great health effect on women.
“With this initiative, we are assured that 400 women will go off the effects of firewood and also reduce carbon emission,” he said.
Speaking on the importance of trees, Buba said they purify the air we breathe and also serve as carbon absorbents.
This, he said, made the Kaduna State government frown at felling down trees, where an existing law that banned it still functions.
“This is why the Kaduna State government is allowing all partners to partner with it in attaining its objective of making the state greener and less carbon emission.
“We also have our road map in ensuring that we reduce to the barest minimum the use of firewood in cooking in the state,” he said.
Some of the beneficiaries and advocates of the clean cookstoves, Mrs. Asibi Hassan and Hauwa Magayaki said the initiative had been a game-changer for them and their families.
In addition, they no longer have to worry about inhaling harmful smoke while cooking, which has improved their health significantly.
They equally said they use a small quantity of coal for the stoves, which saves them time and money.
The duo also said that they have been advocating and convincing many women on the use of clean cookstoves, which were affordable.
“The clean cookstoves initiative has empowered us to take control of our health and environment. We have learned about the dangers of smoke inhalation and the importance of reducing carbon emissions.
“We are grateful to WISE and their partners for providing us with these stoves and educating us on their benefits. We hope to see more initiatives like this in the future.
