Fuel-Saving Ovens

Our Agriculture Officer, Green Phiri, teaches people around our area how to build fuel efficient stoves.

Such stoves are excellent because they:

• Use less firewood, saving money and slowing down deforestation
• Are much safer, reducing the number of children and epileptic people who suffer burns from stoves.

Fires in these stoves are also easier to keep alight than the traditional fires where you rest a pot on three bricks.

One of the most popular versions is a Changu Changu stove (which means “quick, quick!” in Chichewa slang, a reference to what a short time it takes to build!) It requires just 26 bricks, 7.5 litres of clay soil, 7.5 litres of sandy soil and water. It is very simple to build and to maintain.

You can read simple step-by-step instructions from Ripple Africa on how to build a Changu Changu here.

Here Green is showing the men and women at the New Office site at Njewa how to build a deluxe double version of the Changu Changu, suitable for mass catering:

If you would like to fund Green’s work with the local communities please click here: