By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Zebilla (U/E), Oct 27, GNA – World Vision Ghana, a Christian humanitarian organisation, has donated 1,000 energy-efficient cookstoves to the Bawku West and Binduri Districts in the Upper East Region.
The gesture, with support from World Vision Germany and the Knauer Family was part of efforts to help households and communities in the beneficiary districts to adopt energy efficient methods to cooking.
It was to also contribute to reducing emissions, fighting climate change and influence achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Making the presentation at Zebilla in Bawku West District, Ms Laura Cristina Delvalle, the National Director of World Vision Ghana, said the widespread adoption of improved stoves for domestic use in many countries had been recognised as desirable development outcomes.
She said the move to adopt energy-efficient stoves especially for domestic use had reduced large portions of the population in those countries’ dependence on biomass fuels.
“Continued burning of biomass contributes to problems such as deforestation, erosion, declining soil quality and fertility.
“As climate change rises on the global agenda, stove technology has been one of the adaptive approaches for programmes that seek to address climate change related issues,” she added.
The National Director noted that use of energy efficient stoves saved close to 50 percent of biomass that would otherwise be wasted in open fire thereby minimising the impact of climate change on the wellbeing of women and children who were the most affected.
“Not only is the adoption of clean cooking solutions a health, economic, gender and environmental imperative for us in World Vision but it is essential for achieving the SDGs for good health and wellbeing, gender equality, affordable and clean energy, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate change action as well as life on land,” stressed.
Ms Delvalle indicated that over the years World Vision had been dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling root causes of poverty.
She explained that apart from providing assistance to more than 150 million people in nearly 100 countries, serving all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender, World Vision had been working in partnership with civic actors and government to foster accountability and strengthen participatory decision making,
“I wish to urge and encourage the District Assemblies to find innovative ways to scale up these interventions to reach more people for the sake of child wellbeing,” she advised.
Receiving the donation, Mr Alhassan Ahmed, the Bawku West District Coordinating Director, thanked World Vision Ghana and its partners for the support and pledged to ensure that it was distributed to the communities.
He said the two districts had large numbers of communities and the Assemblies would work to learn from the innovation and scale it up to benefit many communities.
“We know this is going to serve as model to see how we can build on and scale it up to benefit many communities,” he added.
The Bawku West District received 400 cookstoves while the Binduri District received 600 cookstoves.
GNA