(pic: Debasai with improved cookstove owner)In 2003, Eritrea's Department of Energy Research and Training Center (or ERTC) won an Ashden Award for the design of a new stove for cooking traditional injera bread. Since then, 110,000 stoves have been installed across rural Eritrea.
This week the Eritrean Ministry of Energy and Mines (of which ERTC is a part) has gone on to win a Green Apple Award as International Gold Award Winner for the Built Environment. Debesai Gebrehiwet, ERTC's director, collected the award on Monday.
Yesterday Debesai dropped into the office with the new award. He stressed once again the impact that the cookstoves have on society in general.
“I knew I had to create a better design for existing cookstoves, to save energy, the environment and women. The cookstove is a family matter, because everyone is there, everyone is affected. Making a change with cookstoves makes a good change in the family and in society as a whole.”
Debesai also showed us some of the feedback he's getting. One user, Mrs Abeba Tsefamichael said,
“No words can express how much I am satisfied. As I am a mother of eight children, I have to bake Injera every three days. Thus, I used to consume almost two quintals of wood and animal dung per month. However from the time that I started making use of the modern Mogogo I have never consumed more than a quintal of fire wood per month."
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