If
the cliché that ‘seeing is believing’ is something to cling to, then the women
of Basse, the capital of provincial Upper River region of the Gambia, should no
longer have doubt in shifting to energy-efficient cooking stoves.
For,
they were recently made to see firsthand how one can prepare meals using the
stoves, which compared with the traditional firewood and charcoal cooking
devises, save more time and emits insignificant amount of smoke, thereby
keeping cooks from exposure to health risks associated to smoke.
“Engagement is needed for more
women in URR so that we can all resort to the use of fuel efficient stoves and
do away with firewood,” says a woman Astou Jobe, who witnessed the
demonstration.
Organised by the renewable energy
association of the Gambia,
REAGAM, in partnership with the
ministry of Energy, with funding from the UNDP, the public demonstration on the
use of the stoves was witnessed by women leaders, TAC members, police officers,
community development workers and market women vendors. It was held at the
Basse police station, situated right opposite the main market in that town.
