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Europastry helps fighting poverty
and desertification in Africa
April 2011
Europastry has signed an agreement
with Sol Solidari, an NGO that provides solar
ovens and stoves to families in the Sahel, Ethiopia
and Central Africa. Sol Solidari performs technical
and logistical projects with local associations
in Ethiopia, Mali, Burkina Faso and Cameroon.
In rural communities in these countries,
people often depend on wood for cooking, which is collected
mainly by women, walking many miles every day. In the
Sahel area south of the Sahara, the excessive use of
firewood is causing increasing desertification
and soil erosion, which in turn accentuate
poverty and impede human development.
Introducing new technologies,
Sun Solidari helps reduce health problems, poverty and
deforestation of these communities.
In Isalo (Uganda) all households cook
with wood, usually with the three-stone system. This
is an extremely inefficient method
because of energy losses. In addition, generates a lot
of smoke, often inside homes, causing severe vision
problems and increasing the incidence of lung cancer
and other respiratory diseases.
Moreover, women and girls must lose
several hours a day looking for firewood. For this reason,
girls often cannot go to school.
Thanks to Europastry, Sol
Solidari has donated 20 solar ovens to help the creation
of a microenterprise, in which a community
of women will sell bread baked by them.
In Bandiagara, Mali, desertification
is a serious problem that impedes human development.
In this region of low rainfall and arid landscapes,
140.000m3 of wood are consumed anually for cooking.
Women must travel great distances to collect firewood,
because the areas near the villages are already highly
desertified.
Europastry has funded 600
family stoves and 120 school stoves in Mali.
These simple stoves, manufactured
by local blacksmiths, consume only a third of the firewood
used in the three stones method, help to reduce the
aridity of the region and improve the living conditions
of the population.
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