Solar cooking in Gaga refugee camp in eastern Chad

Sixty women in the Gaga refugee camp in eastern Chad received solar cooking instruction in April through a Solar Household Energy project funded by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR). The camp’s 20,000 residents are primarily refugees who fled violence in the nearby Darfur region of western Sudan. The project is designed to test the appeal of solar cooking devices as a supplement or alternative to traditional cooking methods and fuel-efficient cookstoves. The HotPot solar oven was the device used. The training was organized at the camp by Patrick Fourrier, a consultant to SHE and head of Africa programs for Bolvia Inti Sud Soleil. He will return to the Gaga camp in several weeks to ensure that newly trained solar chefs are using the technology successfully, and to review the impact of the project.

Photo: A resident of the Gaga refugee camp in eastern Chad proudly
displays a HotPot solar oven which she recently was trained to use.
Windy conditions require that the solar oven’s reflector be secured.