Life-Saving Clean Cookstoves for Nigerian Women

Help women leaders in Nigeria access, promote and distribute clean cookstoves to support healthier families and communities!

The use of open fires and traditional cookstoves is a global health and environmental problem, killing over 4 million people every year and threatening the health of millions more. In Nigeria alone, 95,300 people die every year from inhaling cooking smoke. The health and economic burdens of dirty cookstoves disproportionately affect women and girls (largely in Sub-Saharan Africa), who inhale the daily equivalent of up to 20 packs of cigarettes while cooking 3 meals/day, and who spend up to 4 hours/day (60 days/year) collecting firewood; this means less time to attend school or work.

Clean cookstoves are proven to save lives and advance women's education and livelihoods. The Women's Clean Cookstoves Project -- a partnership between U.S.-based Women's Earth Alliance and WISE (Women's Initiative for Sustainable Environment), a local Nigerian NGO -- will train 30 Nigerian women entrepreneurs to build and scale clean, affordable cookstove businesses, train their families and communities to adopt clean cookstoves, and form networks to advocate for clean energy at the local and national levels. These 30 women will reach 13,000 people in Kaduna, Nigeria with the opportunity to purchase and appropriately use clean, affordable cookstoves. As a result, these families will have the chance to breathe healthier air, reduce deforestation, increase household savings, improve health and safety, and transform their sense of personal and community empowerment.

You can help. Just $15 pays for one clean cookstove.

Report From The Field

August 2018

YOUR donations have helped 30 female entrepreneurs launch their own clean cookstove businesses across Nigeria! Because of their hard work, over 3,000 people in Nigeria are now using safe clean cookstoves at home. Life-threatening smoke inhalation has been significantly reduced. Women and girls tasked with preparing food every day are spending less time each day collecting firewood, allowing them to spend that time on other activities, such as studying and giving back to their communities. Household savings have also increased thanks to all the money these families are saving on fuel. Your donations are having a lasting effect on the lives of thousands of Nigerians every day!

December 2017

GreaterGood.org funds helped train 60 women on clean cookstoves, and provided them with seed money to start clean cookstove businesses. Because of this effort, 13,000 people in Kaduna, Nigeria are now breathing cleaner air due to their adoption of clean cookstoves. As the women's clean cookstoves businesses scale, we will begin to see a large reduction in deaths from smoke inhalation.

Earth Island Institute is a non-profit, public interest, membership organization that supports people who are creating solutions to protect our shared planet. Earth Island institute is the fiscal sponsor for Women's Earth Alliance. Women's Earth Alliance equips women with the skills and tools they need to protect our earth and strengthen communities from the inside out. They work with local leaders who build up other leaders. In some of the most threatened places on earth, WEA partners are: saving indigenous seeds, selling clean cookstoves, launching sustainable farms, providing safe water, protecting land rights, and much more. With local leadership guiding each WEA project, they design capacity-building training where women access skills and tools in appropriate technology, entrepreneurship, and advocacy. They gain seed funding, mentorship, and a global alliance. With these resources in hand, participants go on to launch their own environmental projects and teach others to do the same.