Winter 2017 - Kampala, Uganda

Austin Dalmasso, second year undergraduate student, Global Disease Biology. D-Lab Involvement: Student in the Winter 2017 Global Poverty Seminar 

Description

D-Lab student Austin Dalmasso spent one month in Kampala on his Blum Fellowship to carry out his project efforts. Over 90% of the Ugandan population relies on biomass fuels for cooking, and this is mostly with the inefficient 3-stone fire. Improved cook stoves are used in only 10% of over 6 million Ugandan households. This results in massive pressure on the dwindling forest cover, lots of time spent by women and children collecting firewood where women are exposed to risks like accidents and assault. Women spent at least five hours each day while preparing meals for their households along with children where they are exposed to Indoor Air Pollution from the 3-stone fire stoves. Indoor Air Pollution causes respiratory illnesses. Approximately 19,700 people die as a result of IAP in Uganda each year of which 17,000 are children under five years. The project called for the research of the feasibility of developing and implementing more efficient gasifier stoves. Activities included conducting post-consumer surveys, collecting data on use and effectiveness of stoves, and investigation of capital and personnel sources to scale up the project.

Check out the 2018 associated project here

Read the survey data processing paper

Read the first, second, and third project blog posts

Photos