Developed in partnership with Engineers Without Borders USA, this small kitchen project is located in Usalama, a small community in Ukambani, Kenya.

 

During our construction of Usalama’s four classrooms, the community identified the kitchen as an additional priority for renovation. A dangerous health hazard, the structure’s lack of ventilation caused the simple three-stone fire inside to turn the building into a smoke box.  Everyday three student volunteers would have leave class for three hours to stoke the fire and help the cook prepare lunch.

 

The completed project reconceived the structure as an air foil, harnessing the prevailing wind to both provide fresh air to an insulated rocket stove, and provide a negative draw out of the roof to ventilate the space within. Today no students need to leave class to stoke the fire, which uses 20% less wood and boils water in half the time that it used to.  Both leaders and construction workers have since built similar efficient kitchen stoves and structures around the community

 

A complete article summarizing the design and construction of this project can be found here.

 

This project was made possible by a generous donation from Mwikali’s Gift.