A dirt road branches from Kisumu-Usenge highway at Kolenyo towards Reru village, Kisumu county, some six kilometres from the shores of the Lake Victoria.
Once a fishing
community, Reru residents no longer enjoy
large catches of Tilapia and Nile Perch.
Fish stocks in the second largest fresh water lake in the world have dwindled, leaving a trail of destruction on trees
mostly used for making canoes and paddles.
The lake region also experiences massive erosion from surface run-offs that have rendered land bare and cut the harvest of staple foods, leaving the area poorer, amid the high prevalence of the HIV/Aids scourge.
It is under these circumstances that a group of women widowed by HIV have resolved not to be left behind as the world makes concerted efforts to reduce the effects of climate change.
Inspired by world leaders' Paris meeting
Aniga Women Initiative, which has more than 50 members, makes
energy-saving cooking stoves, an
idea that struck when world leaders met in Paris, France, in 2015 and came up with a climate change agreement.
When the Star met secretary Merine Akoth in December last year, she said they wanted to be part of the team that would restore the environment around Lake Victoria.
“We no longer get enough fish from the lake as a result of hyacinth and poor practices which have swept it clean. Trees in this area have been cut and we no longer get enough rainfall like it was when I was got married 20 years ago,” said Akoth.
She added that the situation has left most members struggling to fend for their children and the orphans they take care of.
“But we cannot sit and wait for manna to fall from heaven. That is why we came together and started the initiative,” she said.
Members of Aniga Women Initiative build energy-saver stoves that have helped them contribute to efforts against drastic climatic changes. /MOSES ODHIAMBO
To the women, some HIV positive,
nothing matters more than conserving trees and making some cash from the creation
and sale of the stoves.
“It is a simple process. We source sand from the lake's shores, buy a few bags of cement and the metallic parts, which are then put together to come up with this product,” said
Akoth.
“Ours is to ensure we save the last of our trees that have for long been threatened by the manufacture of canoes,” said the MCA.
Akoth said that most of the time, the sound of power saws is heard as canoe makers cut trees
for timber.
Many households in the area rely on big bunches of firewood for energy to prepare single meals for their families.
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MCA
Benta Ndeda
- the group's founder and resource mobiliser - said pointers from the conference in Marrakech, Morroco
were of great help.
The women knead clay, mix concrete and bind these on their own to come up with the stoves, a job Ndeda said has also saved them risks associated with wife inheritance.
Her sentiments were echoed by Consolata Anyango, the groups' chairperson, who said the project has not only saved the environment but
also reduced dependence on inheritors.
"Our trees are conserved as the stoves do not use a lot of firewood," Anyango said, adding that in the past many of them awaited support from their relatives but that this is no longer the case.
“The stoves are energy efficient. They use very little wood. We have saved a lot of trees in this neighbourhood for the period we have actively sold them,” she added.
Maureen Faith, the group's coordinator, said it is very easy to make the stoves.
“We get the materials locally, save for the metallic parts that are crafted
elsewhere
at an affordable fee,” she said.
“The stoves are sold at between Sh1,500 and Sh2,000. Since January 2016, most of the members have earned enough to educate their children and build
homes," added the 34-year old.
“We want these stoves to be sold to every corner of the Lake Victoria basin. The climatic problems in Reru are similar to those experienced in various parts of the region."
Workers help members of Aniga Women Initiative to build energy-saver stoves that have helped them contribute to efforts against drastic climatic changes. /MOSES ODHIAMBO
Faith said the innovation has stood out as a game changer among local climate change management interventions.
She added that while the group concentrates on how to cut fuel consumption, many in their community
plants trees and deal with the dangers of gully erosion.
Ndeda, who also serves at the women's patron,
said the idea has shown there are ways, other that reliance on the government for cash, for community members to meet their needs.
“We felt we needed to do this instead of waiting for cash from the county to mitigate the dangerous effects of climate change and our other problems. The women's groups, some of which I started long before joining politics, implemented what they could to change their fortunes,” she said.
“And I have encouraged them to follow what is being done globally so that we not only enable them to put food on their tables but also develop skills to pass on to others.
“Aniga has saved trees through this venture. We have reduced respiratory diseases, cut the cost of energy and
reduced the risk of girls being raped while gathering firewood."
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Saving the environment a tree at a time
The World Health Organization says smoke from three-stone stoves is a major contributor to indoor air pollution in developing countries, and causes approximately four million premature deaths annually, and a wide range of illnesses.
“Around three billion people cook and heat their homes using
open fires and simple stoves burning biomass (wood, animal dung and crop waste) and coal. More than four
million people die prematurely from illness attributable to
air pollution from cooking using
solid fuels,"
the agency said in its February 2016 fact sheet on air pollution.
"More than 50 per cent of premature deaths due to pneumonia among children under five are caused by the particulate matter (soot) inhaled from household air pollution,”
According to Global Alliance for Cookstoves – an agency run by the US State Department of State in charge of environment, traditional stoves contribute to more than 20 per cent of global black carbon emissions.
WHO further sounded the alarm that reliance on biomass for cooking and heating forces women and children to spend hours each week collecting wood, a time during which they often face severe personal security risks, especially in conflict zones.
“Cooking over open fires also puts women and girls at risk of debilitating burns and increases pressure on local natural resources such as forests, wildlife habitat among others,” the US agency said.
It is these dangers that the small village is slowly eradicating.
Members of Aniga Women Initiative build energy-saver stoves that have helped them contribute to
efforts against drastic climatic changes. /MOSES ODHIAMBO
Effects of rapid climate changehave become
a concern for many nations worldwide,
and were one of the key issues discussed at the Paris conference.
From the meeting
that brought together superpowers including the US, countries under the European Union and African states,
emerged the UN’s Paris Agreement.
But Joseph Amoke, an environment expert based in Kisumu, told the Star that small scale interventions towards ending the effects of climate change salso bear fruit.
Amoke said the one or two trees that every family conserves will, in the long run, contribute to the reclamation of the Lake Basin's lost environmental glory.
“For instance, the stoves have reduced carbon emissions, cut risks of respiratory diseases and helped conserve energy which in the long run cuts the consumption of firewood,” he said.
He added that since fish that end up on most beaches in the area are not enough for their needs, alternative means of earning a living help them make thousands of shillings.
“We need many other similar ventures as the effects of climate change are heavily experienced in Africa,” he said.
The women were
trained by UK organisation
Global Footsteps. They intend to use the proceeds from the sale of the stoves to make the venture more sustainable, and get memebrs from other regions.