My Africa Story

Back in 2006-2007 I spent several months in Mozambique, Africa.

I lived, worked, and played at a mission for orphaned children, but much of the time was also spent in the remotest parts of the Cabo Delgado province, also known as “the bush.”

While in the bush, I was amazed at the natives’ proficiency with the most common items.

+Need to scour the bottom of a metal pot? Use bundled reeds.

+Need a snack? How about some lightly toasted caterpillars.

+Need to cook some food? Find some wood and try to not choke on the fumes while cooking inside a mud hut.

An eye opening experience for any westerner, to be sure.

The needs are great, the people amazing, but the resources are very low.

Enter BioLite: Energy Everywhere

Last week I stumbled across the company story of the BioLite Stove. I immediately thought of how this could change the lives of so many in Mozambique and in other underdeveloped nations.

Here’s the quick-pitch from the BioLite website:

“BioLite Stoves make cooking on wood as clean, safe and easy as modern fuels while generating electricity to charge phones, lights and other electronics off-grid.”

This may not seem earth-shattering to you, but have you ever…

A. Cooked indoors with three logs, three bricks, and one pot (think about the smoke)?

B. Tried to use a solar panel as a power source on a cloudy day (or during the night)?

According to BioLite, nearly “half the planet still cooks on indoor open wood fires and the toxic smoke they emit kills nearly 2 million people every year, twice as many as malaria.”

That’s a surprising and shocking statistic.

BioLite goes on to say that “previous efforts to address indoor smoke with clean cookstoves have failed to achieve the smoke reductions necessary to protect health and have also failed to catalyze consumer demand due to minimal functionality beyond that of a traditional open fire.”

Simply put: nothing has worked except an open fire.

Until now.

Safe Fuel, Safe Energy

What if… the BioLite HomeStove eliminated 90% of indoor smoke and saved millions of lives in doing so? It does.

What if… the stove provided sustainable electricity to off-the-grid customers, affording them the ability to charge cell phones and LED lights? It does.

And what if your support of a project like this would enable more market-based approaches to poverty alleviation? It can. (Read more on the BioLit business model in their presskit download here.)

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Guest Post by Andrew Zahn. Andrew is an actor, writer, corporate sales trainer and candy lover.