Refugee camps

From Solar Cooking

CooKit solar panel cookers in the Iridimi refugee camp in Chad

Solar cookers have been used in refugee camps in recent years, often with thousands of refugee families preparing a large part of their daily meals on solar cookers. Project evaluations have shown that fuelwood use has been reduced by up to 40%. Solar Cookers International has carried out projects in Kenya and Ethiopia, and the KoZon Foundation is currently working in refugee camps in Chad with refugees from Darfur.

Parabolic cooker in Kenyan refugee camp

The refugees in some camps are not provided with any firewood to cook their daily rations. They have to travel sometime overnight as far as 30 km to collect firewood. In other camps, the refugees are not allowed to gather wood in the area surrounding the camp. In this case, the refugees may be forced to trade some of their food rations to for firewood or charcoal with which to cook their remaining meager rations.

The greatest effort is now being put into providing solar cookers for the Darfur refugees in Chad. For more information on this effort and to make a donation, please see Jewish World Watch.