Our goal is two stoves per household
One aspect of life in Malawi that prevents human flourishing is illustrated by the millions of women and girls who every day cook on open fires. Malawians call this ‘mafuwa’ and it refers to the balancing of a pot on three stones. This practice is time consuming because of the need to collect large quanitities of wood and it is inefficient. Burn injuries often occur. The pot has to be watched constantly and women fan the flames by blowing on the fire.
Since 2014 Mbedza has been building Esperanza Stoves, in fact as this is written we have built over 7600 in 86 villages. In 2025 we have changed our approach, partly out of necessity. When our field officers visit a village to introduce this project we explain that households must build a ‘kitchen’ to protect the Esperanza. This will protect the stove from the elements and help ensure its durability of over 10 years. We have noticed that since 2023 this has become more and more difficult for households.
Cyclone Freddy damaged many homes in 2023 in our catchment areas. In some villages nearly every home was damaged. Households are still, even today, trying to make good that damage and complete repairs to their homes. Finding the materials to also build a kitchen has become a problem. What we discover then as our stove builders are ready to begin work is that many do not have a kitchen and it is our policy that no kitchen means no Esperanza.
Kanyesi village - the house was destroyed by the cyclone although the Esperanza stove remains undamaged.
We have decided therefore that we will supply every home with a portable Gamba Tinsmith stove so that everyone can start cooking in a more fuel efficient way. We build Esperanza’s for those who have kitchens ready and then we return at a later date to complete the building of Esperanzas for those who need more time to prepare their kitchens.
Village meeting to discuss the introduction of the Gamba Tinsmith stove.
As an example, this year in 2025 we were building in Kamphande village in Monkey Bay. The village has 327 households but only 164 homes had kitchens prepared. We provided 327 Gamba Tinsmith stoves and built 164 Esperanzas. We will return later this year to complete more Esperanzas
In Traditional Authority Mlumbe we recently built stoves at Mwamadi village - 132 were built for those with kitchens out of 249 households. All 249 received the portable GTS stove. We will return later to assess how many more households have kitchens prepared.
