Twenty-year-old Lucy Mazengera, 20, from Mazengera Village in Salima District did not fancy studying solar technology.
However, she was compelled by massive youth unemployment, low rural electrification and rapid loss of forests in Malawi.
Mazengera studied solar energy technology at Kindle Orphan Outreach Vocational and Training Centre in the district along Lake Malawi.
Among others, she has acquired skills to fashion an insulated solar electric cooker using concrete mix molded in a plastic bucket.
The cooker is a brainchild of Professor Peter Stewart from Caroline University in California, US, who visited the shoreline district as a researcher.
A portable solar panel transforms sunlight into electricity for powering the cookstove.
“Cooking should be simple and clean for all,” Mazengera says. “I want to transform my village using solar power for clean cooking, lighting and business use.”
However, forests across the country go up in smoke as nearly every household—about 98 percent—cook using firewood and charcoal.
The smoky, three-stone, open fires do not only deplete trees but emit smoky fumes that exposes people, especially women and children, to deadly diseases.
According to the World Health Organisation, indoor air pollution fuelled by fumes from firewood, charcoal, coal and crop residues cause about 3.8 million premature deaths annually.
Low electrification worsens the cooking crisis.
The Energy Department estimates that about a quarter of Malawi’s population is connected to the national grid, but 95 percent of the rural majority remain excluded over 40 years since Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom)rolled out the Malawi Rural Electrification Programme, now under the Ministry of Energy and Mining.
The National Energy Policy of 2018 promotes renewable energy for off-grid communities.
As the long wait for grid power persists, Mazengera says solar power and other renewable offer reliable energy solutions for cooking, lighting and business chores while protecting the environment and human health.
Her course is certified by the Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training (Tevet) Authority.
The insulated solar electric cooker is credited with retaining and emitting heat much longer than wood-fired stoves.
“This innovation doesn’t require any piece of firewood or charcoal. It saves forests b diverting people from cutting trees to the power of sunlight, which is free, clean, renewable and abundant in our lakeshore areas,” she says.
Mazengera also installs the solar-powered cooking device at a fee to meet her needs and uplift her family.
“As a young woman, I am contributing to solving the cooking crisis and environmental degradation in my community,” she says.
Gift Lusaka, a 28-year-old student from Kapyanga Village, Traditional Authority Mwadzama in Nkhotakota District, does not just earn money through such installations. He also shares the skills with his peers in his village to protect the environment and boost their incomes.
“We need to protect the environment and stop cutting trees for firewood or charcoal,” he says.
According to Kindle Orphan Outreach Training Centre solar technology instructor Victor Chikoti, the cooker requires at least 100 watts to heat up for cooking.
“The higher the watts, the faster it heats the pot,” he says.
The cooker is made up of concrete mix molded in a bucket and clay coated with copper bars that heat the body and the cooking pot.
“We have used this innovation to cook nsima, bake doughnuts and boil beans, so it really works,” Chikoti says.
The Tevet Authority (Teveta) offers empowers the youth in accredited vocational training centres with an array of skills in solar technology. It regulates the provision of technical, entrepreneurial and vocational education and Training to ensure it is up to standard.
Teveta board chairperson Gilbert Chilinde says it is amazing that trainees are acquiring essential skills while changing people’s lives in rural communities.
“I am thrilled with this innovation. Whenever we have resources to support training institutions, we take interest by providing the equipment they need for quality trainings,” he states.
