Giving Compass' Take:
- Farai Shawn Matiashe spotlights the advocacy of youth in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya for reduced air pollution and reforestation.
- What role can you play in supporting Kenyan youth as they organize for climate justice to restore ecosystems and save lives in their communities? How are human well-being and environmental health interconnected?
- Learn more about key climate justice issues and how you can help.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on climate justice in your area.
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In a dusty, unpaved school compound at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya, Umutoni and her classmates use waste paper to make briquettes for cooking. Nearby, other boys and girls laugh loudly while constructing clean cookstoves under a tree. The 18-year-old Umutoni, a learner at Bluestate Secondary School and one of the youth in this Kenyan refugee camp, is championing briquette-making and energy-efficient stoves to curb deforestation in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Known as jiko, the clean cookstoves use up to 70 percent less fuel than traditional stoves and reduce dangerous indoor air pollution.
Three-quarters of Kenya’s population has access to electricity, and 90 percent of the country’s electricity comes from renewable sources like geothermal, wind and solar. While Kenya is forging ahead in renewable energy and access to electricity, energy tariffs are still high beyond the reach of many.
As a result of issues like limited energy access, about 2.1 billion people across the world, the majority of them women and girls, do not have access to clean cooking, according to the International Energy Agency. They continue to inhale dirty fumes while trying to put food on the table.
Particulate matter and other pollutants in household air pollution inflame the airways and lungs, impair immune response, and reduce the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood. Each year, 3.2 million people die prematurely from illnesses caused by household air pollution from burning solid fuels and kerosene for tasks like cooking, according to the World Health Organization.
Unfortunately, the majority of refugees in Kakuma are among those who do not have access to electricity. Umutoni moved to Kakuma Refugee Camp after fleeing the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo when she was a child, and she lives there with her mom and five siblings. “I lost my father during the war. My mother is sick, so I am the one taking care of them,” Umutoni, who requested only her first name be used for safety reasons, told TriplePundit.
Read the full article about clean air and reforestation in Kenya by Farai Shawn Matiashe at TriplePundit.