About 600 women from the Bilel locality of South Darfur received training on how to make fuel-efficient stoves. The training, facilitated by NGO Solar and Environment Organization for Sustainability and Development, was sponsored through UNAMID’s quick-impact projects (QIPs) programme.

UNAMID’s Sector Police Commander, Mr. Celestine Twahirwa, explained that the project is designed not only to alleviate environmental damage caused by excessive use of firewood but also to protect women and girls who typically are the ones walking long distances from their homes to collect it, and in the process are risking attack.

“It is my hope that this project, and others like it, will help to improve the lives of women,” he said, urging everyone to work together to protect women from gender based-violence and create an enabling environment that supports them.

In her remarks at the event’s inauguration ceremony, the NGO's Projects Director, Ms. Fatima Saddiq El Ajab, said that, in addition to addressing environmental and safety issues, the stoves are designed to improve health by reducing the volume of harmful smoke women breathe while cooking in Darfur.