Ecobora

Area of Focus:

Raise Living Standards

Geography:

Kenya

Ecobora equips underfunded schools across Kenya with clean, solar-powered cooking boilers. These boilers deliver affordable and sustainable energy for cooking to rural communities across the country.

Roughly four million rural and underfunded schools in Sub-Saharan Africa use firewood to cook their meals. In Kenya alone, over 678,000 schools and academic institutions cook by open fire. The smoke this produces is not only harmful for the planet and to the individuals breathing it in, but it is also expensive. Indeed, a newly introduced government ban on logging in Kenya has led to an increase in the cost of firewood. Therefore, doubling the cost of cooking meals and forcing schools to increase their tuition fees, which places the financial burden on parents. As most of these parents live below $2 a day and are unable to cover the costs, over 340,000 students are dropping out of school annually.

Ecobora is tackling this issue by selling affordable solar-powered cooking boilers, an innovative and sustainable alternative to traditional firewood boilers. With TRANSFORM’s support, Ecobora will test and scale its pay-as-you-go model, delivering a clean and affordable cooking solution to rural communities across the country. The project will start with the establishment of five solar-powered school kitchens, allowing students to access free school meals and eventually, lifting them out of energy poverty.