Mudzi Cooking Project is a community-focused, cleaner, and more efficient cooking solution based in Chisinga, Malawi.
The idea for constructing stoves and making briquettes came to Maria after seeing women in the community walking long distances to search for firewood to cook for their families. They were suffering. Maria remembers one woman going to the bush for firewood and returning without any, which made her husband angry, and things didn’t turn out well for her. As a young person, Maria realized it shouldn’t be like this. She researched alternative solutions and learned about efficient cooking stoves. They are not costly, and gas cookers are too expensive in Malawi. The solution had to be affordable.
When she won The Seed Prize, Mudzi Cooking Project was just an idea in Maria’s head. The first thing she did was speak with her community members about it. So many people had come to the village promising better ways to cook our food, but nothing had come to life. They told Maria her project was their wish finally coming true. The most important thing was making sure the idea was something the community wanted, and she didn’t have a hard time involving them. They were so excited about the stoves and the briquettes; Maria was the first person delivering on a promise.
First, she provided training to young volunteers in the community aged between 16 and 24 years old. Each person constructs a stove in their own home as part of the training. Once they have completed this, they start making the stoves in other people’s homes.
The difference between these new stoves and the traditional way of cooking is that previously, the stoves required a lot of wood, which would produce a lot of smoke. This meant the air was dangerous for people to breathe. Not only do briquettes produce much less smoke, but the way the stoves are constructed also requires less burning material and keeps the smoke within the stove, keeping the stove warmer for longer.
Mudzi Cooking Project aims to provide every household in Chisinga with access to briquettes and efficient cooking stoves so that not one person in the community needs to cut down trees. The families are so happy now. They are free to attend to cooking tasks quickly. By the end of 2023, Maria’s aim is for every household in Chisinga to have an efficient cooking stove and access to briquettes.
Cooking stoves
The stoves are made from cement, soil, and bricks. The materials are mixed and then used to build the stoves, with two hobs at the top and a small hole on the side for the briquette. The small hole ensures that only a limited amount of firewood is used.
Using these stoves requires less wood than traditional stoves. However, at the moment, only some people have access to briquettes, and some still use wood. Traditional stoves require wood to be put in three different sides, use a lot of wood, produce a lot of smoke, and burn out quickly. In contrast, these stoves are easy to construct, sustainable, cheap to make, and easy to use.
To achieve Mudzi Cooking Project’s goal to ensure that every household in Chisinga has access to a new stove, we’ve trained 100 young people to construct and build stoves throughout the community.
It’s a long journey, but reducing deforestation is important to the Mudzi Cooking Project, and we believe anyone can learn to make these stoves. That’s why we want to ensure the stoves are constructed for free, removing finance as a barrier. With the money from The Iris Project Seed Prize, the project has already constructed over 500 cooking stoves, and by the end of 2023, we hope to reach our goal of offering a new stove to every household in Chisinga.
Briquettes
With Maria’s grant from The Iris Project, Mudzi Cooking Project brought two briquette-making machines and distributed one to a group of women and one to a group of young people. Each group consists of ten members, and the machines are shared.
Mudzi Cooking Project makes briquettes from waste materials such as ground nut shells, sawdust and waste paper. First, they collect the ground nut shells and grind them into small pieces. Then, they grind waste paper with water, add the ground nut shells into the water, and mix them with a ratio of three ground nut shells to one mixture of paper. The mixture is then manually worked by hand until the briquette-making machines come in. The machines have cups that press the water out of the mixture and create briquette shapes. After pressing, the briquettes are compacted and dried in the sun.
The women and young people share the briquette-making machines, taking turns to make the briquettes. They then sell the briquettes and divide the money among themselves. This additional income has enabled them to support their families. The local community buys the briquettes, and the women and youths take 100% of the profits.
Making briquettes from waste materials is environmentally friendly and makes waste useful. Previously, many women stayed home without work, but this project has provided them with financial support. With additional funding, the Mudzi Cooking Project would like to buy five more machines so that each group has their own machine and can work more efficiently. Maria also hopes to expand the sales of the briquettes beyond Chisinga and into other local communities.
The Team
Maria Kameta
Steven Makumba
Emmanuel Chiteya
Jane Mponda
Loyd Kafa
