Our Safer Kitchens program was created to help improve school kitchens at our partner schools. This program replaces open fire stoves with propane stoves that are safer and more efficient for school lunches. Lunch moms at our partner schools have reported struggling to make lunches each day over open fire stoves. Lunch moms start their day at four in the morning, walking long distances to school, to harvest wood, and start a fire that will be powerful enough to cook lunches on for multiple hours. We learned that lunch moms were labouring over fires for hours and were struggling to get all the learners fed on time. By improving the conditions of their kitchens we can help lunch moms spend more time with their family, improve the health of these amazing women, and ensure that students are getting fed on time each day.
We have successfully installed propane tank and burners at several of partner schools including Beretta Primary School and Mahashe Primary School.
Beretta Primary School’s kitchen coordinator wrote to us, “Before the stoves were installed we were suffering a lot during rainy days. It was difficult to give learners food in time because the wood would be wet and it takes too long to cook and it disturbs the process of teaching and learning. Now that A Spring of Hope brought gas stoves and pots to cook with it is much easier to cook and it saves time. The cooks are happy that they now give the learners’ food on time and it is simple for them to cook with the gas stoves. They enjoy using the gas stoves. As Beretta Primary School we are happy about what A Spring of Hope has done in our school”.
According to a recent New York Times article “… ailments related to smoke from cooking, including cataracts, heart disease and respiratory ailments that, in many countries, kill more people than malaria, H.I.V. and tuberculosis combined. Worldwide, close to 4 million people die prematurely each year from ailments linked to air pollution from cooking, according to the World Health Organization.”
We are ask for your help to make a healthier work environment for Norah Sithole and all the “lunch moms” at our partner schools. These amazing women wake up at four in the morning, walk a long distance to school, harvest wood, and start a fire, which needs to burn throughout the morning to cook the daily pap meal (maize). We would like help them by supplying propane tanks and burners. By improving the conditions of their kitchens we can help these women spend more time with their family and less time hauling wood, standing over large fires, and inhaling smoke. With your donation we can give back to these dedicated women and give them a healthy work environment where they are celebrated for their hard work and dedication to the school.
Below you can see examples of the kitchens we typically see at the rural South African schools.
The lunch moms, the school children, and A Spring of Hope thank you for your contribution!