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July 2008

A solar cooking project in northern Somalia

The Sanaag region of northern Somalia is in the grips of a severe drought. This adds pressure to an already severe situation. Alredy there are more of than two thousand of the former pastoralist who lost their animals due to earlier droughts and they are scattered in the villages of Sanaag as an internally displaced people.

Eastern Sanaag villages are over burdened with displaced people. Fire wood collection is getting difficult and scarce therefore very poor and displaced people are starting to uproot various live vegetations so they may get energy for their daily cooking demand. That is why most of grazing lands near the villages are turning desert. Many women and children are uprooting various live vegetation. Those uprooted bush trees will not come back when the rain comes because the trees are gone for ever. Some of the important grazing species called 'baskalex' is already becoming extinct in these areas.

Due to many years of awareness the pastoral communities try to protect trees from charcoal makers. Charcoal is not available as easily as before and because of this tree protection policy in many parts of Sanaag region charcoal is hard to access and is not as cheap as it used to be. Even if someone gets a chance to find smuggled charcoal it is very expensive and very few families can buy it.

Sun Fire Cooking, in cooperation with the Pastoral Youth Leadership (PYL) program of the NGO Horn Relief will work to distribute solar cookers. This will require training women and girls for distribution, management, monitoring, and evaluation and reporting. This task will not be easy for PYL to implement such a project, but solar cookers are of dire need in the PYL project villages.

Training is an important part of the solar cooking program. Solar cooking is easy, but according to Sun Fire Cooking's research it takes time to change attitudes. Solar cooking is a new concept and it needs effort to change from the old system of cooking. Most of the women do not like to change their traditional way of cooking and find it hard to adapt to a new method of cooking, i.e. the solar cooking. Women and girls will find many reasons not use it unless they are trained well.