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CooKit solar panel cookers in the Iridimi Refugee Camp in Chad where all 17,000 camp residents are cooking with the sun
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 is currently partnering with the KoZon Foundation, Tchad Solaire, and Jewish World Watch in the Darfur refugee camps in Chad. A November 2009 report from onsite visit to the Touloum Refugee Camp shows strong uptake of solar cooking by refugee families.
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.
News and recent developments
- January 2012: Jewish World Watch has provided a grant of $200,000 USD to the UK NGO Cord to provide CooKits to refugees at the Farchana Refugee Camp in Chad. This new project brings the number of refugee camps where solar cooking projects are underway to ten.
(See individual refugee camp pages below for more extensive news.)
Refugee camps with current solar cooking projects
- Touloum Refugee Camp (Chad)
- Iridimi Refugee Camp (Chad)
- Oure Cassoni Refugee Camp (Chad)
- Gaga Refugee Camp (Chad)
- Farchana Refugee Camp (Chad)
- Beldangi Refugee Camp (Nepal)
- El Serief Internally Displaced Persons Camp (Sudan)
- Sakali Refugee Camp (Sudan)
- Tham Hin Refugee Camp (Thailand)
- Orukiga Refugee Camp (Uganda)
Refugee camps with past solar cooking projects
- Aisha Refugee Camp (Ethiopia)
- Dadaab Refugee Camp (Kenya)
- Kakuma Refugee Camp (Kenya)
See also
- Jewish World Watch
- KoZon Foundation
- Cord
- Solar Cookers International
- Promoting solar cooking
- Integrated Cooking Method
- Cooking for large groups
- Partnership for Clean Indoor Air
- GIZ
- Derk Rijks
- Stephen and Sheila Harrigan
- Water pasteurization
- Commercial water pasteurization devices
Manufactured solar cooker models suitable for transport to refugee camps
See also: All solar cooking manufacturers on Alibaba.com
Articles in the media
- February 2009: Simple Tool That Saves Women's Lives - Parade Magazine
- November 2008: LAist Interview: Rachel Andres of the Solar Cooker Project - LAist
- August 2008:Working to End Darfurian Genocide - Larchmont Chronicle
- May 2008: Rays of hope for Darfur refugees - Guardian Weekly (UK)
- April 2008: Challah For Hunger donates profits - UCLA Bruin
- June 2004: Solar cooker offers ray of hope for refugee environment - UNHCR