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Village woman in Changa Manga lighting Escorts Foundation's improved cooking stove, hand made by the villagers themselves. (Photo credit: Martin Wright)

The Lahore-based Escorts Foundation, a small charity run by Pakistani women, has developed and introduced a fuel-efficient cooking stove, to relieve pressure for fuelwood in the Changa Manga forest and improve the health and economic prospects of village women. The stoves are made out of mud and straw by the women who will use them. They consume much less than half the fuelwood of a traditional stove. While traditional fires need branch-sized pieces to generate enough heat, the new stove with its small, enclosed firebox can cook simple meals with a few handfuls of twigs. It emits very little soot or smoke, leading to dramatic improvements in the health of the women who use it.

Within the target villages, take-up has been over 70% with about 11,500 stoves serving over 90,000 people installed in the last few years in Changa Manga alone. Escorts plans to create a training centre for people from all over the country.