Solar cooking success story
Rakotobe Joseph Primary School in Ambohimahamasina is a bit different from most of the other schools benefiting from our School Feeding Programme – despite the 554 pupil numbers being amongst the highest of all our schools, they have turned to solar cooking.
Since January 2023, parents have used solar cooking for rice, and, to their surprise, they found it very beneficial. Cooking is less time-consuming since they now just need to put the rice inside the solar oven and open it after 90 minutes – and the rice is ready to eat. Most importantly, it has substantially reduced the use of firewood for cooking.
Parent checking the rice is ready to eat
““Before, pupils here would bring firewood twice a week but, since starting using this solar oven, they only need to bring firewood once every three weeks. So we can see a big difference. For now, we just use it to cook rice but we plan to start using it to cook the accompanying dish in a few months. Like that the main tasks left for us will be serving the meals to the children and washing dishes” said a parent.”
Children now only need to bring in firewood once every three weeks
This solar cooking initiative is part of our project with Solar United Madagascar (SUM), in addition to our rolling-out of Light libraries in schools to bring renewable energy to children and local communities.
SUM members visiting Ambohimahamasina Primary School