{"id":270469,"date":"2010-02-03T07:44:53","date_gmt":"2010-02-03T12:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oxfam.org.uk\/applications\/blogs\/pressoffice\/?p=10379"},"modified":"2010-02-03T07:44:53","modified_gmt":"2010-02-03T12:44:53","slug":"energy-saving-stoves-soap-and-small-yerry-cans-little-great-life-saving-ideas-from-uganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/270469","title":{"rendered":"Energy saving stoves, soap and small yerry cans- little great life saving ideas from Uganda"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\"Women<\/a><\/p>\n
Women from the Caicaoan village, in Karimoja, have to walk for hours to find firewood they can use for cooking<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

So, this is the end…I am so so sad to say that this is my final post about my visit to Oxfam projects in Uganda.<\/a> This week I visited\u00a0 the Rwebiseng area, where Oxfam is working together with the Red Cross on climate change projects. My Oxfam colleagues and I had to leave the cool nearby mountains and cross parts of a national park under the vigilant eyes of baboons and Uganda cobs to reach the more pastoral lowlands. The landscape slowly changed; it became harsher, dryer; only a few trees and small herds of cattle roaming as far as the eye can see.<\/p>\n

Green ideas<\/h3>\n

Believe it or not, this is the ideal place to promote some clever energy saving ideas.<\/p>\n

In this dry area, people don’t have enough fuel to burn and struggle to cook their food; they will be spending hours walking vast distances to find a small piece of wood. So, the new energy saving stoves developed by Oxfam and their partner, the Red Cross, are a real revolution for these communities!<\/p>\n

These new stoves allow people to cook using much less wood and the innovative design means that two pots can be cooked from one fire and will even remain warm much longer when the fire dies out. I was amazed at how simple they were. They use literally dug from the ground and they are set to wipe out the old method of cooking over an open fire.<\/p>\n

Oxfam and the Red Cross have trained two people in each of 15 villages in the area. As soon as these \u2018students’ learnt how to make the stoves, they immediately passed on the skills to their neighbours. Now 70% of people in those villages use the new stoves. The communities have also been planting hardy trees<\/a> that can survive in the arid climate despite the lack of rain and can therefore be a permanent source of fuel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Disaster Risk Reduction Committees<\/h3>\n

The climate is so variable in this valley that communities have been setting their own Disaster Risk Reduction Committees to be able to cope in emergencies and, if possible at all, to prevent them in the first place. I met three members of a nearby committee who explained how they tackled the climatic problems they face.<\/p>\n

Flooding is one of the most serious problems here- it is often followed by long periods of drought. So the local committees keep an eye on the clouds to know when the heavy rains are coming. When they are approaching they gather people in the community to dig trenches to protect houses and trap water for the dryer seasons.<\/p>\n

Oxfam has been working with communities here also work to improve hygiene and sanitation in the area, as outbreaks of cholera due to the stagnant water are frequent. Families have been trained in how to develop simple hand washing facilities involving soap, a small jerry can and a rope, and these \u2018hygiene champions’ go on to teach the rest of their communities<\/a>. It seems to be working- when I asked about the success rate of this initiative, people replied that, despite the floods, they hadn’t had a single cholera outbreak in the last year.<\/p>\n

Visiting some of the Ugandan communities we work with has been a huge privilege for me.\u00a0 What strikes me the most is that despite all the challenges (click here to\u00a0find out about the Uganda Food Crisis and what we are doing about it<\/a>), here no one is giving up.\u00a0 Everyone is tackling the problems they are facing and finding solutions. What a start contrast with the apathy about climate change that sometimes I have experienced whilst talking with people in Manchester or Liverpool. In Uganda climate change is happening right now, it is affecting every aspect of people’s lives and it is constantly on everyone’s mind.<\/a> Is it fair to leave the Rwebiseng communities alone to fight it?\u00a0 I really don’t think so. The UK up-coming elections are an opportunity to convince the future new government to put climate change at the top of the UK agenda, take action and join the people of Rwebiseng in their fight<\/a>. No time to waste!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women from the Caicaoan village, in Karimoja, have to walk for hours to find firewood they can use for cooking So, this is the end…I am so so sad to say that this is my final post about my visit to Oxfam projects in Uganda. This week I visited\u00a0 the Rwebiseng area, where Oxfam is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4242,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-270469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}