Human Resilience

Working conditions are both the physical and the psychological conditions that workers are exposed to while performing a job. When we talk about conditions, we refer to everything in and around that working environment the employee is exposed to. They can also significantly impact the employee’s health and safety, mental wellbeing and productivity.

It never stops to amaze us the poor working environment that cooks are exposed to in the traditional school kitchens. Using traditional cook stoves means that the smoke generated from poor firewood combustion is equivalent to smoking two packages of cigarettes per day.

Employees always lack protective gear, and are prone to getting burnt from the dangerous fire flames raging from all sides.

Ashes and soot are floating around, the heat is unbearable and the pressure to get the food on time only makes such work more stressful.

This job is badly remunerated, the average salary is currently USD 50.00 per month, Monday to Saturday.

The pictures below are the sad representation of what 90% of kitchens in Uganda look like. Turning such miserable conditions need effort and dedication, and we are committed to making the work place a dignified environment as many individuals and organizations continue to push towards achieving their sustainability goals through the purchase of carbon credits.

New Month New School

We welcome St. Gyaviira Primary School to our Gold Standard registered project activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda”. We have managed to donate 2 institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) to this school that currently cooks for 800 students.

The video here below was taken last Sunday, as the school has got a small boarding population. They currently use the traditional 3-stone fires to prepare the daily meals. With their new IICS, the school will be able to save almost USD 900 on annual firewood purchases. That is a lot of money for a government aided school, where schools fees collected from parents are really minimal and the support from government is also restricted. Stay tuned as we will soon post the pictures of their new kitchen!

Closing October With St. Lino

As the month end, we welcome St. Lino Junior School to our Project Activity. Yesterday we delivered 3 institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) to cater for all cooking needs for their 500 children population.

This school has managed to benefit from a 40% discount on the IICS cost thanks to the support provided by SNV. For us, we do not charge any mark-up on the costs, on the contrary, we are always looking for grants to make sure we can help schools further as they move away from traditional cooking practices. The prices we are charged from the IICS manufacturer, Ugastove, are the exact same prices we charge the schools joining, and whenever possible, we look for funds to have them discounted.

St. Lino is currently finalising the construction of their new kitchen building. In the meantime, we have placed all 3 new IICS inside without having the chimneys installed, as we await for the builders to give the finishing touches. We are sharing here below the current kitchen the school has been using for the past ten years, a typical basic construction with metal sheets, no doors nor windows, no flooring, and traditional cooking stoves.

Focus Should Be On People

The cooking sector, especially donors and financing bodies, currently put the focus on the lifetime of the improved cook stove (ICS), which can vary somewhere between 3 to 5 years for the household models, when supporting the scale-up of efficient and clean cooking activities.

But this approach is wrong. The focus should be put on the people using that new technology, instead of worrying on how many sales can be achieved, or if the product includes a warranty. The objective is to make sure that user or household is being supported throughout their lifetime as they successfully make the cooking transition and move up the energy ladder. Projects should be there to support users to ensure they do not go back to old traditional cooking methods, to provide advice if new cooking technologies arise and can continue to upgrade to more beneficial cooking appliances. Projects should be there to monitor the user’s usage rate, stacking habits, and provide support to any repairs and maintenance needed.

We know the aim is to provide with modern, affordable and cleaner cooking solutions to many individuals still cooking today like in the Stone Age. Intentions are good, but the design is short sighted. Let us focus on the lifetime of our beneficiaries, instead of focusing on the lifetime of the technology. Then we would have succeeded in having a long-lasting impact in the lives of those left behind.

The True Meaning Of Local Impact

So much to discuss about cookstove projects linked to carbon finance, and why it is important to buy carbon credits from projects that have a local and in-country focus to everything they do in their activities.

When we talk about local impact, we refer to money that circulates locally, therefore wealth is distributed more equally.

At Simoshi, we have designed our Gold Standard registered Project Activity to help Ugandan schools move away from traditional cooking practices, by designing a system of governance that is responsive to the schools’ needs, that can deliver high sustainable development outcomes to all those communities involved around the school activities, and that can increase job generation by locally outsourcing all the products and services needed to run the carbon project, whenever available.

For example, the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) are locally manufactured by Uganda Stove Manufacturers Limited (Ugastove). The IT Kenga infrastructure used for all monitoring, reporting and verification activities is designed by the local software developer OmniTech. All carbon asset development, accounting, financial, and legal services are provided by Ugandan companies run by Ugandan professionals.

It is Simoshi’s pride to state that all taxes are paid locally as we are a company 100% fully registered in Uganda, with no other subsidiaries abroad, a company that supports domestic revenue generation. This approach in the carbon financing sector is generally lacking in developing countries, and we believe such assessment of a carbon credits’ local impact should also be included under the high integrity carbon categorisation.

It is still not clear how the majority of carbon project developers, intermediaries, and rating agencies are currently disclosing and/or assessing the flow and the impact of those revenues accrued from the sale of the carbon credits and how these are reflected in the local economies. We believe this is a subject that needs attention and discussions as we continue to pursue towards a more transparent sector.

Mixed Kitchen Style

Last school term of the year - term III - has commenced, and children are busy getting ready for their final exams that will take place next month by the end of November.

We have had several calls from various schools that requested Simoshi’s services, and we have visited some of their kitchens to measure the saucepan capacities in use and be able to prepare a quotation with the cost for replacing all with new institutional improved cook stoves (IICS).

It usually surprises us in a sad way, that many of these new schools are using a combination of 3-stone fires, together with stove constructions that have the look and feel of “improved”, but actually perform very poorly and consume a lot of firewood just as any other traditional appliance. The picture here below depicts the typical scenario of what we call a traditional kitchen, with poor ventilation, full of smoke, soot and ash flying in the air, and poor hygiene as a result inefficient firewood combustion.

At the moment we have placed the IICS order of different saucepan capacities for three new schools, and we will be sharing the pictures of their new kitchen environments very shortly.

Site Visit From The Gold Standard

Yesterday we were honoured to host our colleagues from the The Gold Standard, one of the leading standards and registries in the voluntary carbon market. CEO Margaret Kim, Director of Marketing and Communications Jamie Balantyne, and Senior Manager and Strategy Yuval Tchetchik, joined us for a full day of excitement as we visited three different schools around Kibiri.

We started the day at Simoshi’s office, where Rehema Nakyazze also joined us to talk about Uganda Stove Manufacturer Limited, the provider of our institutional improved cook stoves (IICS). We then went to a secondary school using the traditional 3-stone fires in their kitchen, before we moved to Springfields International, a private primary school that had joined our Project Activity back in May this year and are currently using the IICS. We continued to another school, this time Kibiri Catholic Primary, a government aided school that has been using our IICS since 2019.

This was an amazing experience for our visitors, as they witnessed first hand the challenges encountered when using traditional cooking practices, and the incredible positive impact that is palpable straight away when seeing the cooks in action. They were especially shocked by the improvement in air quality. They also had the chance to hear from the Head Teachers on how the firewood savings had positively impacted the school finances.

Top Rings Corrode

Taking care of an institutional improved cook stove (IICS) is crucial, because it will determine its lifetime, like with everything else. Schools might see an increase in their population, and unfortunately their financial situation is usually not good to buy new saucepans. So cooks end up overfilling the saucepans, and whether it is posho or beans they are cooking, water has salt, and when it starts boiling, food spills everywhere, corroding the top ring.

We have used the past 3 weeks to collect those top rings that needed the free repairs we provide for a 10-year period. Here below are some pictures of the cutting and welding events, with top rings that needed attention, of different IICS saucepan capacities.

For The Long Run

When we include a new school under our Project Activity, it means we will be supporting the school for the long run. We enter into an agreement whereby we commit to handhold the school for a 10-year period throughout their cooking transition.

This means we are continuously training all the cooks, at least every other month, to ensure they feel comfortable with the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS), that they follow the guidelines to take the best care and approach for health and safety on both the IICS and the kitchen environment, and to inspect the IICS condition, so a free maintenance exercise can be booked in advance for when the schools go into the holiday period.

Changing behaviours takes a lot of effort and patience. Changing attitudes do not happen from one day to another. Sometimes, our hearts are broken when the new school term starts and we see some cooks no longer employed, new faces around, whch means we have to start all over again. It is so sad to see some cooks go, because we become good friends from our continuous school visits.

Nevertheless, some of the school kitchens we have been monitoring since 2016 still have the same cooks employed preparing the daily meals. That is such a relief for us, because we know the IICS are in very good hands! We wanted to share the training sheets from one such school, in Gangu Muslim Primary School, were we still find today Adi Bosco and Sofia Ndagire, just as we did when we first installed the IICS back in March 2016 when we taught them how to move away from their 3-stone fires.

This is such an achievement to know not only how the schools continue to use the IICS without going back to traditional cooking practices, but also we support those individuals who operate the IICS throughout a long period of time, because modifying behaviour is a process, not a single event. And this eductation that happens in the kitchen is also transferred back home.

Changes Happen Everywhere

We usually explain our participating schools that the institutional improved cook stove (IICS) cannot do the job on its own. It needs from the collaborative support from everyone directly or indirectly involved in the cooking activities:

1. From the cook that directly operates the IICS and is responsible not only for preparing the food, but also taking care of their appliance, by using small firewood logs, cleaning the soot, removing the ash, and cleaning the IICS body from any food spilling that may have happened to ensure no corrosion will occur in the future.

2. The kitchen supervisor who is responsible to monitor that all the monthly training provided by Simoshi is implemented and the advice is put in place every day, no matter what.

3. The school administrators, that will follow Simoshi’s advice on anything related to the kitchen environment, as the on-going assessment of the kitchen infrastructure might need repairs, or additions such as a firewood shelter to keep wood away from the rain, saucepan covers to keep the food clean and preserve heat, kitchen tables to ensure food is not prepared from the floor, etc.

These are just some of the examples that Simoshi’s Project Officers are continuously monitoring in every school kitchen, at least once every other month, to ensure a positive transition happens when moving away from using traditional cooking 3-stone fires, and that this change is implemented in the whole kitchen environment, to achieve the best health and safety practices.

Hello September

A new month starts and of course we keep on including new schools under our Project Activity. Earlier this week we welcomed Mbogo Mixed Secondary School, a school with over 2,500 boarding girls and boys. As such, the amount of food prepared on a daily basis in enormous, and therefore the kitchens for boys and girls are separate buildings.

We are eager to share the pictures of the amazing changes this school has gone through, from using traditional 3-stone fires to the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS). Schools in Uganda are currently on holiday, and the last term of the year, Term 3, will resume on Monday 16th of September.

In the meantime, we share here below pictures from the delivery and installation of the 22 IICS of different saucepan capacities.

End Of Term 2

Today schools close doors and children will be on holidays for the next three weeks. Term 3 will resume on Monday 16 September. This is a demanding period as candidates get all the pressure as examination dates become closer!

At Simoshi, we use this holiday period to repair all the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS), a great opportunity to refurbish all damaged parts because no food is being prepared. IICS maintenance is free to all participating schools, every year, for a 10-year period.

Some schools only need repairs once a year, while other schools need attention every single holiday (three times per year). The reason for these recurrent damages found are mainly related to how the cooks operate the IICS and the water content of the firewood used. This is why it is critical to implement training sessions every other month, to ensure the best practices on how to operate the IICS are followed.

It is a lot of hard work especially when cooks leave the job and new staff is hired, buy it is gratifying to see how the behavior positively changes and it is straight away reflected on the condition of the IICS.

Continuous Monitoring

Implementing a credible project, that issues high integrity carbon credits means the project developer will thoroughly follow-up the use of the new technology that is replacing the baseline (in this case the 3-stone fires or traditional cooking appliances).

We wanted to share some analytics of the number of visits we have conducted since we first installed the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) at our first participating school, back in March 2016.

As of today, we have grown to 115 schools (both primary and secondary, day and boarding) that are currently using the IICS of different saucepan capacities to prepare the children’s daily meals.

To ensure these IICS are fully in use, that no other stove models are in place (stacking) or that the school did not go back to their traditional cooking methods, we visit each school at least 6 times every year. Various indicators are collected, with different activities performed, from training of cooks, assessment of the kitchen building and environment, maintenance of the IICS, and collection of children enrollment and firewood expenditure per school term.

This means as of today, our Project Officers have conducted a total of 11,259 physical assessments to all school during the past eight years. The breakdown is shown below and we are extremely proud to share our continuous monitoring of the project’s activities, to ensure 100% confidence that all emission reductions claimed are verifiable and real.

They Need Help

Government schools are usually in desperate need for a helping hand. At Simoshi we are always in the look for donors and grants that can assist them with the partial or full purchase of the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS).

Government aided schools are often overcrowded, and funds are always short to take care of the many infrastructural problems. Kitchens are always left unattended, which becomes a bigger problem to the school finances, because cooking with traditional stoves means higher firewood consumption and expenditures.

Here below I share some pictures from the kitchen at St. Gaviirya Primary School in Wakiso district. This kitchen is the typical set up found with a local mud and cement construction and 3-stone fireplaces used to prepare the daily meals.

We are determined to help this school improve their kitchen environment, with the purchase of 3 IICS of different saucepan capacities. Before this year ends, we will make sure there is a transformation in their cooking habits and we will share the updates as we make this wish a reality.

No Rest For Mums

Hard working mums deserve all our respect and recognition. Moreover, if that mum has just given birth, like Helen whom I found preparing the lunch at this secondary school in Kisaasi.

She is not only working hard with a one month old baby, but also struggling with a traditional cooking set up, using 3-stone fires to prepare all meals. Her newborn baby is just meters away from her, because childcare is not an option, and unfortunately exposing her baby and herself to the harmful smoke from the inefficient burning firewood.

Nearly 1 billion people in Africa are still cooking with such traditional methods, generation air pollution and causing several respiratory diseases. The good news: we will be soon installing 3 institutional improved cook stoves, that will not only save 50% of the firewood used, but also minimise the exposure to smoke as fumes will be pushed outside through the chimney pipe as the cooking starts happening inside a clean kitchen building.

Stones and Stoves

I am sharing a typical cooking set up found in schools around Kampala. Sometimes efforts are made to purchase stoves, and I refrain myself here of calling them “improved cook stoves” just because they have tiles around them. That is another topic of discussion for another post (the unfortunate situation where manufacturers still sell stoves without proper testing certification).

The kitchens have (i) a combination of stoves in bad shape because of a lack of maintenance, and (ii) traditional 3-stone fires that are easily spread inside the building. In either case, all cooking situations are dirty and harmful for the cooks. You can see in the video there is no difference in the amount of smoke released from either one. Ash is also floating in the air, and we can only wonder how hygienic can this result if it ends up in the food…..

The good news is this Teacher’s Training College will soon be joining our Project Activity, so stay tuned for the updates on the kitchen transformation.

Uncertainty versus Inaccuracy

Uncertainty is an unavoidable fact of life, and we confront this on a daily basis when making decisions with incomplete available information. Inaccuracy is often avoidable and an unforgivable misrepresentation of reality.

Carbon registered projects have an obligation to report the daily usage of the technology deployed when requesting for carbon credit issuance. Cycle credit issuance can be improved with the use of technology, which has to be aligned with the methodologies used by the project developer. How data is collected is key, there is no question about it, and how accurate that data is reported, results in high quality and integrity carbon credits.

As new technology comes into the market, and it is embedded into the standards and methodologies, at Simoshi we had implemented a more analog monitoring system at the usage point, since the very beginning back in March 2016 when the first school joined our Project Activity.

To ensure 100 % usage rate of all the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) deployed in the school kitchens, a census approach is taken, so we physically observe the IICS at least 6 times per year, while also collecting data on the name of the cooks operating them and the situation of the IICS for maintenance purposes. Then this data is entered into our Kenga IT infrastructure, that is later reconciled on a monthly basis and used for monitoring and reporting activities.

Any school that decides to include a new stove model outside the approved ones in the Project Design Document (stacking), or goes back to using a traditional 3-stone fire, is automatically disqualified and withdrawn from the Project Activity. Simoshi is the only cookstove project implementing such approach. And we have done this before the era of Internet of Things (IoT).

Today in 2024, we know exactly where our first schools are with their kitchens and IICS that were installed back in 2016. We collect so much detailed data, that we can disclose the history of who is cooking with those IICS, with name and surname (because every single cook signs our training sheets), how many children are fed, how much the school spends in Ugandan shillings on firewood every school term, and how much Simoshi spent and what was repaired on every individual IICS, for the past 8 years. These efforts are continuously deployed to ensure we achieve accuracy in our MRV exercises, while the voluntary sector innovates and evolves as a whole in the requirements needed to bring certainty.

African Carbon Credit Showcase

The first edition of the African Carbon Credit Showcase has now been released, outlining a sample of Africa’s carbon credits generation potential. Prepared by the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI), its aim is to promote a greater awareness of the diverse array of African-based high-integrity carbon credits, covering many nations of this vast continent. It aims at becoming a catalyst of progress while companies and individuals around the world embark towards net-zero targets.

Simoshi is very proud of having its Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda” showcased in this collective effort. See pages 77 and 78 for further information on our work with schools in Uganda here.

Hello Lotte

Lotte Junior School joins our community of 115 schools that currently participate under our registered Project Activity with The Gold Standard. Over the past weekend, we installed 4 institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) of different saucepan capacities that will help prepare the daily school meals.

With the support from SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, the school purchased the 4 IICS with a 40% discount. These IICS are manufactured by Uganda Stove Manufacturers Limited (Ugastove) and we are proud to be able to make them more affordable with such grant.

As Simoshi, we do not make any profit from selling IICS, on the contrary, we are continuously looking for financial resources (grant, donor support and carbon finance) to lower the price and make them accessible to schools, to comfortably transition away from using traditional cooking practices. Below are some pictures of the new IICS, although the school is currently also building a new kitchen structure, so we are hoping to move the 4 IICS and make the chimney installation by the end of this year.

Quarterly Quality

Last week we had our quarterly meeting with Uganda Stove Manufacturer Limited (Ugastove) as part of our mutual efforts to provide the best institutional improved cook stove (IICS) to all participating schools.

These meetings with all the key team members from both Simoshi and Ugastove are crucial to share lessons learned from the kitchen, as we have been monitoring the use of the IICS on a monthly basis for the past 9 years!

The improvements made to the IICS are the results of the collaborative efforts from the technical department at Ugastove and the experience on behavioral change from Simoshi’s project officers.