Sierra Leone Institutional Stove

Sierra Leone’s school feeding program, which provides food for about 750,000 children, relies mostly on traditional stoves which are inefficient and generate high levels of smoke, adversely impacting the environment, climate, and human health. School feeding programs play a critical role in encouraging the poorest families to send their children to school. A 2022 World Food Programme survey found that, on average, one Sierra Leonean school used 60 kilograms of firewood per day cooking meals on the traditional three stones.

In Sierra Leone, BDL partner and local manufacturer, Westwind Energy (WWE), has developed an institutional stove to address these issues. BDL and WWE are partnering to increase the stove’s efficiency, improve its durability, make it easier to manufacture, and lower the stove’s cost. WWE and BDL are also working together to design a production system to bring WWE’s manufacturing capacity up to 500 stoves per month compared to the current capacity of 50 stoves per month. BDL has the capability and experience to accomplish both the stove design improvements and the manufacturing system design upgrade.

The World Food Programme, with funding from the German government, has shown that bettering school feeding programs through cleaner institutional cookstoves improves the health and education of children; improves working conditions for school cooks; makes communities more resilient; promotes gender equality; and supports national economies and social stability.

Project Goals

Our goal is to provide institutional stoves that are efficient, durable and affordable to replace open fires in school kitchens, and in other institutional applications.
This project will lessen poverty by generating employment and increasing manufacturing capabilities and production.
Improve the education of children, particularly girls. Access to school lunches increases enrollment and retention in schools.
Improve health outcomes for institutional cooks and school children by drastically reducing smoke exposure.