Background
Over 2 million people have been driven into refugee camps in the Darfur region of Sudan. Those who leave the camps and make the seven-hour trek to gather fuelwood are at risk of being killed, raped, or mutilated. Unsustainable fuelwood harvesting around the camps has created an ever-widening denudation zone that now extends several kilometers from the camp boundaries. As the denuded zone continues to widen, refugee women must travel further to gather fuel and are thus exposed to greater risk. 50% to 90% of refugees miss meals due to lack of fuelwood, and 40% to 80% of refugees resort to selling some of their limited food rations to purchase fuelwood.
Process
The EWB-Appropriate Technology Team provided engineering support to the Darfur Stoves Project (based at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) as it moved from prototype to production (and deployment) of light metal stoves. These stoves use only one-quarter the amount of fuelwood as the three-stone fires used by almost all of the refugees.
The project involved:
- redesigning the Berkeley prototype for manufacturing while maintaining all features customized for local conditions and without loss of efficiency performance
- developing a manufacturing and assembly system that maximizes the use of local resources
- fast development of the stoves
More Info
- Project Lead: Ken Chow
Project Links
- Darfur Stove Project: www.darfurstoves.org
- Newsweek Article: www.msnbc.msn.com