3 billion people cook with polluting stoves that are directly tied to lung disease. Families, from babies to the elderly, who cook with these stoves suffer from respiratory diseases caused by indoor air pollution. More than 1.5 million people die every year from lung disease directly linked to primitive cookstoves. Further, the problem disproportionately impacts children. When a mother cooks with her baby on her back, it’s equivalent to the baby smoking 3 packs of cigarettes daily. Indoor air pollution is the leading cause of death of children under 5. Without funding for clean cookstoves, women and children, particularly girls, will continue to suffer from disproportionate health burdens.
Burn Design Lab is working to triple the production of the International Lifeline Fund's Improved Cookstove Factory in Lira, Uganda. This is so there is never a choice between providing a healthy future for a family and their ability to feed themselves. At the end of the project, the factory will produce 15,000 stoves each month (compared to 5,000 previously). Using human-centered design techniques, BDL is introducing elements of modern manufacturing and improved tooling and equipment that will increase the capacity, quality, and efficiency of the factory.
ILF is the leading manufacturer of fuel-efficient stoves in northern Uganda. The stoves manufactured by ILF are efficient, durable, affordable, and designed to fit the local cooking culture. There is strong demand for affordable improved cooking stoves in Uganda, but imported mass-manufactured commercial stoves are too expensive so are not a viable option. Uganda needs locally made stoves, yet these are thus far only artisanally made so achieving the volume necessary, with consistently high quality, is not possible.