How does a clean cookstove impact the far African people's household life?

A clean cookstove can transform the daily life of households in Sub-Saharan Africa in at least six interconnected ways.

1. Health: By cutting household air pollution by 50–90 %, it reduces coughing, eye-irritation and long-term risks such as pneumonia in children and heart-lung disease in adults. Less smoke also means fewer burns and scalds.

2. Time & labour: Firewood or charcoal needs fall by 40–60 %, so women and girls regain the 5–20 hours a week they used to spend gathering fuel. Food cooks faster on an improved stove, giving families still more time.

3. Gender equality and safety: Shorter trips into isolated bush-land lower the risk of rape and assault that women face while collecting wood in conflict zones. Freed hours are used for paid work, schooling or community meetings, boosting women’s status and their say in household decisions.

4. Child development: When children—especially girls—are no longer sent to haul wood, school attendance rises and homework time increases.

5. Household economy: Less fuel bought or bartered and more time for income-generating activities raise total family income. In Nairobi, two-thirds of female-headed households earned extra money within months of switching to LPG. Local production and sale of the stoves also creates village-level jobs.

6. Environment and climate: Fewer trees are felled, slowing deforestation, soil erosion and flooding; each stove can save 3–7 t of CO₂e per year, which in carbon-credit programmes can further reduce the cost to users.

Taken together, the stove replaces a smoky, time-draining chore with a quicker, safer, healthier and more dignified way of preparing daily meals.