Eno Stoves

So this is what the kitchen at HOCET’s school in Mkuranga looked like in 2008 and what is still looked like when until very recently. I really enjoy spending time in the kitchen in the mornings and helping Hussein, the cook, make maandazi (sweat fried bread) for breakfast. I remember many tears in the kitchen due to the smoke from the open flames. For years they cooked with firewood and the pot sitting on three sand-cement blocks. This is an inefficient use of firewood and also produces a lot of smoke. Hussein (the cook who has worked at the school since 2006) has inhaled a lot of smoke and I think his eyes have even been affected by the constant smoke.

About a year ago a kitchen building was built.

It went unused for a long time because there were no stoves inside. After the kitchen was completed I had done some research on efficient word burning cook stoves. I sent some emails and got contact information for a local producer in Dar es Salaam: Envotech. I emailed Baba (Hezekia) the information and he asid the place was right now the road form the orphanage’s center in the city. He went and talked with them and I helped find some funds to cover the cost and then in late August I myself went to visit Envotech. The owner thinks it’s ironic that I helped connect HOCET with Envotech. I was halfway across the world and I helped connect these two places that are only a 10 minute walk away from each other in Tanzania. I got to ride on the truck as the stoves were delivered and to see the installation as well. The kitchen now has two Eno stoves. These Eno stoves are fueled by firewood, but use much less firewood due to the design of the stoves. Very little smoke is emitted. And an added bonus is you don’t have to bend nearly as much to cook with these stoves.

Hussein is very happy. No smoke. Less heat. Less firewood used. And it’s easier for me to help make maandazi for breakfast.

I am very happy that the kitchen is being used and that I got to play a role in it. The kitchen is still waiting for furnishings. Cooking is easier now, but there are no counters or even a table to prepare food on. Hussein sits on the ground to make the dough for maandazi and roles it out and cuts it on a small wood board on the floor. They want a table and cabinets with a counter. money needs to be raised to buy the materials to make the furnishings for the kitchen.

If you would like to help with this need you can donate here and your donations will go towards furnishing and finishes for the kitchen.