We love seeing the positive impact our esperanza stove project is having on it's beneficiaries. Today we hear from Patuma.

“If you have come into our village to inspect stoves, you need to inspect mine also! I am one of the super stove users from this village – my kitchen collapsed but I still use the stove”. This was Patuma Kheston speaking when she saw me seated next to the chief’s wife.

Patuma Kheston is an interesting woman from Chilambe village. She is a 39 year old mother of two. Patuma is a subsistence farmer while her husband is a small-scale fish businessman who buys and sells small fish from Lake Chilwa.

“The stove has been of great benefit to me and my family. Food cooks fast and it is safe for my children and grandchildren. As a result of the time saved and my children cooking on my behalf, I have been able to grow and irrigate vegetables in our field close to the stream. We have grown Mustard this year. The plan is to eat and sell some of these and this will bring great improvement to our family”.

“The stove has other benefits. It saves firewood – the amount of firewood that cooked a single meal on mafuwa now cooks three meals on the new stove. Firewood worth MK300 would sometimes not even last a day on the mafuwa but the same lasts two and a half days on the new stove. The stove has also saved us from regular coughs and sneezing because it produces little smoke. Most of the times it does not produce smoke. The stove also stores heat that you can use to prepare other meals with. I encourage my fellow beneficiaries to use the stove all the time because it has the potential to transform their lives”. I asked Patuma if she could take me to the Mustard field so I could take some photos, “My husband is at the Mustard field if you would like to take some photos – I have to go to church for a women’s program”.