Food Nutrition is an Urgent Matter

Every day is a learning experience at Simoshi, especially during our filed visits and time spent in schools talking to kitchen staff and Head Masters. To date, we have included 41 schools that have moved away from the traditional 3 stone fires to cooking with institutional improved stoves.

Loads of efforts have made such behavioral change possible, and team work with the school collaboration would have never been possible. Nevertheless, the transition is not over, and to sustain such change, continuous education and monitoring is implemented from Simoshi.

Some schools have been operating their institutional improved cook stoves for over one year. As we originally partnered with schools to change their traditional cooking habits, we realised that such approach focusing on the cooking appliance alone was limited and a look at the bigger picture was needed.

Looking at the bigger picture meant that taking such holistic approach included engaging the school in changing many habits and structures in the whole kitchen environment. The different dimensions and interventions include improving the quality of firewood delivered by suppliers, improving the kitchen hygiene and sanitation practices, improving the building structure, to introducing bio-fortified micro-nutrient dense staples and high iron content beans in school meals.

As we continue to include new schools under the programme, we realised that all provide the same maize (posho) and beans meals every day of the year. Furthermore, Head Masters claim that some of their pupils attend school hungry, the school meal being the only food they get during the day.

Food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition are complex problems. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, 214 million people are chronically hungry and child and infant malnutrition rates are among the highest in the world.

Last week we invited Harvest Plus (see picture below) to meet one of the participating schools to understand better what is currently being done in Uganda. We also had a meeting the following day with SNV Uganda, as we continue to explore further possible ways of improving food nutrition in our participating schools. We will keep you posted as we make progress in this worrying matter.

Covenant of Mayors visits Kyaggwe Primary School

Today we had visitors from the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa project (funded by the Eropean Union), Expertise France, the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, Sustainable Energy Africa, Enda Energie and the French Environment & Energy Management Agency, as Kampala is one out of the seven award winning cities.

Since February 2015, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has been working on the development of its low carbon and climate resilient development strategy which resulted in the Kampala Climate Change Action Plan.

Launched in October 2016, The Kampala Climate Change Action Plan presents a 6 thematic-wide action plan, including access to efficient and renewable energy in schools. In order to support the implementation of the action plan, the EU selected of Kampala to be part of the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The 3-year project will allow KCCA to set a governance framework for its Climate Change Strategy in terms of quality management systems on critical data to follow up on the implementation and monitoring, engagement of multi-scale stakeholders, city cooperation within the country, but also showcase concrete pilot actions such as integrated neighborhood model plans and green services platforms.

Today we at Simoshi have been proud to showcase the uptake of the energy efficiency cooking technology by KCCA Kyaggwe Primary School, moving away from the traditional 3-stone fire cooking practices.

Women's Day

Today we are proud to celebrate the international Women's Day as we continue advocating towards gender equality.

Clean cooking is key to achieving global development and climate goals. Switching to an improved cook stove can deliver progress across 10 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Today Simoshi is proud to be making a contribution towards closing the "Gender Equality" (goal 5) gap. Unpaid work, including collecting wood and cooking, remain a major cause of gender inequality.

February's Update

Apologies for a silent past month but we have been busy as classes resumed early February. As part of our monitoring protocol, we visited all participating schools and conducted a training assessment in the kitchens where the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) are in operation.

This exercise is performed quarterly to ensure the "Kitchen Management Techniques" are followed and the best use of the IICS is achieved. At the same time, a reinforcement training session is conducted to refresh all lessons learned, collect feedback on the performance of the IICS, and perception of air quality by the kitchen staff.

Hosting Visitors

Last week we have been busy hosting two different groups of visitors. We had a group from UNDP, the NAMA facility, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (MEMD) and the Uganda Energy Credit Capitalisation Company performing a site visit to one of the schools included under our programme. Hajji, the Director for Gangu Muslim Primary School, was proud to speak about the performance of the stoves and we are grateful for his time and collaborative attitude. This meeting was requested by the NAMA facility as part of their site visit on the shortlisted NAMA for schools and institutional improved cook stoves in Uganda, submitted by MEMD and UNDP.

Our second second group of visitors belonged to the Ugandan Designated National Authority as part of the site visit performed for the issuance of the Letter of Approval (see previous blog post here below). This time we visited Mbuya Church Of Uganda Primary School, which is currently renovating the kitchen structure.

Great Start of the New Year

I wanted to share the good news as Simoshi has been granted the Letter of Approval from the Designated National Authority to implement its institutional improved cook stove carbon finance project activity in Uganda.

The Designated Operational Entity (UN auditor) finished successfully the auditing site visit before Christmas, and the Draft Validation Report was provided to us. We are expecting to submit the Final Validation Report and all Project Design Documents to the Clean Development Mechanism’s Executive Board in the next week. After this is done, we have to patiently await until end of March, and if all goes well, the Project Activity will be fully registered.

Stove Maintenance in Progress

Schools are now on holidays, and until early February 2017, children will be off enjoying their well deserved time off.

In the meantime, we profit from closed doors and quiet kitchens to maintain all institutional improved cook stoves (IICS), as part of the free annual maintenance Simoshi provides to all participating schools to bring all IICS to a "as new condition", while keeping fuel savings high as the first day of installation.

Normal wearing out of combustion chamber after one year of continuous use.

Combustion chamber is refurbished with a mixture of mica, sand and cement to cover the insulation bricks.

A Step Closer to Registration

The week has finished with Vikash's visit from Carbon Check India and Johann, our Consultant from Germany. The site visit from the Designated Operational Entity is the prior step for Simoshi's project activity to get the Final Validation Report ready for submission to the Clean Development Mechanism's Executive Board.

Two days of intensive work, site visits and discussions took place in Kampala, and we are delighted to share some pictures of these events.

Gold Standard Stakeholder Feedback Round

Simoshi Ltd. would like to invite you to participate in the Stakeholder Feedback Round (SFR) of the Gold Standard/CDM carbon project ‘Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda. As part of the carbon certification requirements defined by the Gold Standard Foundation, stakeholders should be given the opportunity to provide their feedback on the project through two separate rounds of stakeholder consultations. The first round is the Local Stakeholder Consultation (LSC), a physical meeting which took place on 10/06/2015 at Triangle Hotel in Kampala, the second round the SFR.

Simoshi is a limited company registered in Uganda. Its energy efficient project linked to carbon finance is capable of bringing cleaner, healthier and environmentally friendly institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) to low-income individuals and the poor, especially women and children. Revenues from carbon credits will enable Simoshi to upscale the project and carry out new investments within the education and technology sectors. 

SImoshi is no longer applying for inclusion under the registered Improved Cook Stoves for East Africa (ICSEA) Limited Programme of Activities as still communicated during the LSC. Simoshi is now pursuing a Gold Standard/CDM stand-alone project registration.

Further, Simoshi would like to provide clarification to the stakeholders on the following since the same was not clearly and slightly differently presented during the LSC. The IICS project will include fixed or portable institutional stoves that use non-renewable firewood or renewable biomass (e.g. briquettes made out of agricultural residues or firewood from renewable plantations). These IICS are sold to schools/institutions who are allowed to pay back throughout the calendar year in three equal installments at zero interest rate. Alternatively, national and international donors support schools/institutions by covering partially or totally the cost of the IICS. All IICS receive free annual maintenance throughout the duration of the carbon finance project (up to 21 years).                                                                                                 

You are kindly invited throughout the following 2 months to provide comments and/or suggestions for improvement to the following proposed methods for the continuous input & grievance mechanism:

• Via email: virginia@simoshi.org and info@goldstandard.org
• Via telephone: +256 (0) 790 885 455 (Virginia Echavarria, managing director Simoshi Ltd.) and +41 22 788 70 80 (Gold Standard Foundation)
• Continuous input & grievance expression process book located at Simoshi Limited office: Lubowa Valley Estate, Plot 5355, Block 273, Lubugumu, Wakiso District, Kampala.

The continuous input & grievance mechanism’s purpose is to maintain a transparent communication channel with local stakeholders throughout the crediting period of the project, in addition to the Local Stakeholder Consultation and Stakeholder Feedback Round. 

A copy of the Project Design Document, Local Stakeholder Consultation Report and Gold Standard Passport can be accessed here to provide detailed information about the project. These documents will also be available at Simoshi’s office and Simoshi (www.simoshi.org) and GS website (www.goldstandard.org). The documents describe how your comments received during the Local Stakeholder Consultation have been taken into account, and allow you to provide any further comments, concerns or suggestions until 02/02/2017.

Please provide your feedback by Email sent to Virginia Echavarria (virginia@simoshi.org) or by phone +256 (0) 790 885 455.

Change is Now Real with KCCA

Please watch a short video beautifully made by KCCA, showcasing the change achieved by one of their supported schools in Kampala: Kyaggwe Road Primary School.

Improved Cook Stoves and the Potential for Change

Yesterday we had a fun morning interacting with children from grade 5 at the International School of Uganda. As they get their innovation projects ready for the Invention Convention, we explained the cooking situation in schools and households in Uganda, and discussed the alternatives to cooking with fossil fuels.

With loads of interesting questions and attentive faces, we hope we have managed to inspire a few, to find new opportunities for creativity and tackle some of the big problems we face through social innovation.

Implementing the programme on 79 KCCA supported schools

Simoshi was proud to attend yesterday the Kampala Climate Change Stakeholder Dialogue and sign the implementation partnership agreement with Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) to support the Kampala Climate Change Action Plan.

KCCA with support from the French Government through Expertise France, French Development Agency and FEM as part of the africa4cliamte programme, has developed a Kampala Climate Change Action Strategy for the city.

The Action Plan details the initiatives and deliberate actions that will need to be taken to ensure Kampala's resilience to the impacts of climate change and it communicates a clear vision shaping KCCA's response to climate change.

Simoshi will be responsible to changing the traditional cooking habits in 79 supported KCCA primary schools. 60,000 children will benefit from the installation of institutional improved cook stoves, with 10,000 tonnes of CO2 to be reduced annually and 11.4 tonnes of firewood saved per year.

As part of the carbon finance project with the Clean Development Mechanism and the Gold Standard, Simoshi will use the future revenues from the sale of the carbon credits to provide free annual maintenance to all stoves, and further implement green development projects with other KCCA partners in the fields of food security, renewable fuels and tree planting.

Expertise France and KCCA visit schools

This past week we have started to deploy the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) funded by Expertise France and supported by Kampala Council City Authority (KCCA).

After a week of deliveries, training and loads of cooking, kitchen staff are now enjoying the wonders of the new IICS. More training will continue throughout the next months, and adjustments will be made to the kitchens infrastructure, so the best efficiency and safety can be achieved.

We are sharing below some images of the installation that took place at Bukasa Primary School. We have captured pictures on the last day the kitchen staff prepared the meals in the old mud stoves, and the following day when they had shifted all their operations to a new building with the new 4 IICS.

Learning New Skills

Yesterday we attended the Sawa World Day 2016 and the opening of the Sawa World Solutions Centre, the award winning NGO offering 32 local solutions to self employment and better livelihoods.

Simoshi invited the Directors from St. John's Secondary School and Living Hope Kawanda to join the event whilst learning from skills such as edible gardens and urban farming. As these schools are already benefiting from firewood savings with the use of the institutional improved cook stoves, we would like to continue with our efforts to create a better cooking environment.

We believe such approaches could be implemented is schools with limited space, allowing them to grow their own vegetables, improving the children's diet and reducing the school's food expenditures.

Maintaining the Institutional Improved Cook Stoves

As part of SImoshi's carbon finance programme, we provide free annual maintenance to all the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) population, every year, for up to seven years.

Some of the installed IICS have been in operation for over six months. As part of our programme, we provide trainning to the school kitchen staff on how best to operate the IICS.

Nevertheless, we still find some challenges as the staff continue to overfill the saucepans. When the contents boil, the salt corrodes the metal as it spills outside.

We have started with our maintenance activities, and the most common maintenance events are (i) replacing the outer steel jacket and (ii) replacing the bricks in the combustion chamber.

Steel jacket gets corroded because the saucepans are over filled.

Replacing the IICS outer steel jacket as part of our free annual maintenance.

Giving the final paint touches, and the IICS is now back to as new condition!

First Video for Simoshi

Throughout June we had a busy schedule collecting footage and conducting interviews for Simoshi's first video on the distribution of institutional improved cook stoves in schools in Uganda:

Clean cooking is a major issue in Uganda. Most of the population is still using wood and charcoal for cooking. Schools are no exception, and this video tells the story of Simoshi in its efforts to provide affordable institutional improved cook stoves to schools in the distrricts of Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono in Uganda.

We want to share some pictures of the work and thank all those that helped us achieve this.

Pleasant surprises

Every month we conduct monitoring visits on those schools where Simoshi installed the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS). June has been a month of amazing surprises, as we found two more schools re-investing the money saved from firewood in their kitchen installations.

The school directors, teachers and kitchen staff are so proud of their new kitchens, it is contagious. We wanted to tell you how proud we are of them all.

More schools added before June term break

Early May has been a busy time as we included three new schools in the parish of Buloba. As Term 1 comes to an end, teachers are busy writing children reports and kids attending boarding are looking forward to going back home.

We wanted to share some of the pictures from our improved cook stove installation during this time before the school break. Although most school kitchens stop preparing meals, we continue monitoring them as many schools embark in making infrastructure improvements to their existing facilities.

Money Savings Reinvested in Kitchens

Yesterday we visited City Junior Primary School in Nateete. Back in February, the school replaced their old traditional stoves with new improved ones.

Today, the school is saving more that UGX 400,000 per term in firewood expenditure. As part of their kitchen improvements, the school has also invested in building a new kitchen structure. We were pleasantly surprised to see their kitchen staff cooking in a friendly and comfortable environment. We would like to share the pictures of the school as it improves their facilities.

The old school kitchen as the new improved cook stoves installation process commenced.

The new school kitchen with all their new improved cook stoves fully operational.

Pilot Project with Kampala Capital City Authority

Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has developed the Kampala Climate Change Action Strategy road map to ensure the City’s development path takes a low emission approach, builds resilience and maximizes the co-benefits of efficiency, economic diversity and human well being.  The Climate Change Strategy builds on the ambition of the Strategic Plan 2014 – 2019 to transforming Kampala City into an attractive, vibrant and sustainable world class City.

As part of the Uganda climate change strategy, KCCA is piloting the installation of institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) in ten KCCA supported schools in Kampala. Through its partnership with Simoshi and Uganda Carbon Bureau with its Clean Development Mechanism and Gold Standard registered Improved Cook Stoves for East Africa Programme of Activities, the reduction of firewood consumption and subsequent emission reductions of carbon dioxide will contribute to the national and international ambitions on climate change response.

Ten schools have been surveyed and their kitchens assessed. By the end on May 2016, all their traditional cooking appliances will be replaced with energy efficient improved cook stoves, made by Ugandan stove manufacturers.