2021 RECAP

The year that passed….

 

 

2021; another year under the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant adjusting, rethinking, taking precautions and being flexible.

 

Luckily, we see progress in terms of research and vaccines being given out, and we are optimistic for 2022 to be able to meet colleagues and partners, attend events and expanding our networks in physical presence in many locations.

 

But so, the year 2021 is coming to an end and looking back at all the milestones we achieved these past 12 months makes us very proud and grateful.

 

We have gathered insights into our work from the entire year, taking you along the different places we have been and showing you some of the many inspiring people we got to work with.

Let us take you through our year:

January / February: 

 

After the second lockdown in many Central European countries and issues with shipping, availability of supply on all ends and other issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our container with ECOCA solar cookstove cabinets finally arrived at our new local production facility at Lokopio Technical Innovation Center, next to the Bidibidi Refugee settlement in Yumbe District, Uganda.

 

We were happy to finally open a local assembly, and meet our local staff at our first visit of the year.

 

The assembly point and team has since grown and we are impressed by the work the local colleagues have achieved since opening the facility only some months ago.

March – May:

 

Together with Care we provided community kitchens in Bidibidi Refugee settlement with ECOCA solar cookstoves, as part of their Camp+ project, the initiative to establish the world’s first 100% sustainable refugee camp. The community kitchen serves as a central location for families from the area to prepare food for their families in a healthy and sustainable way, without having to collect firewood and cook over open fire in their home.

 

We further got the chance to realize our second field trip in May, where we among other things conducted interviews and research about the Camp+ project, our pilot project with coffee farmers in Rakai in collaboration with CIDI and further train and update our local staff at the assembly at Lokopio.

We gained a lot of useful insights during this trip, among other things the impact stories by different customers who have been users of our ECOCA solar cookstoves throughout the past months and gave us their review and experiences.

 

June – August:

 

A lot of things happening in Denmark! While Uganda has been confronted with another severe wave of COVID-19 cases, which resulted in further lockdowns and travel bans, causing us to stay home, we made a lot of progress and hosted events from our base in Herning.

We successfully concluded our very first fundraising campaign “Empowering women with the ECOCA” in collaboration with Coop Crowdfunding and Sustainary. As part of this we hosted our first online cooking event. As a consequence of our successful crowdfunding the ECOCA gained increasing attention and made Sustainarys’ list of nominees for the SDG Tech Awards 2021, as a sustainable start-up committed to contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We were among the finalists, and joined their event in Copenhagen.

 

Furthermore, our office in Herning was visited by the Danish Minister for Development Cooperation & Nordic Cooperation Flemming Møller Mortensen, whom we presented our product and who let us in about current developments and aims of the humanitarian aid and development sector for the coming months and years. We discussed approaches and ideas towards sustainable development and how Danish companies can do their part to contribute to this goal.

September / October:

 

The ECOCA is going more and more places, and we are so happy about the interest in our product by customers from different countries, primarily in East & Central Africa.

During the summer two new pilot projects were established, one in Malawi and another one in Mozambbique. After showcasing the product and trying it out in the different communities, we received feedback from our local partners in autumn, reporting about the great interest in our ECOCA by locals, as well as inputs for improvement and feedback on integration in the local communities.

November / December:

Two more trips to end the year on a high note! Part of the Pesitho Team attended the AidEx fair for sustainable development and humanitarian aid in Brussels, Belgium in November. Together with a number of other companies and organizations from the humanitarian aid, clean cooking and sustainable start-up sector, we had a stand at the Danish Pavilion, hosted by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Dansk Industri.

The fair was also visited by the Danish Minister for Development Cooperation & Nordic Cooperation Flemming Møller Mortensen, who had been to our office in Herning earlier in the year, and we got to hear about updates from the sector, as well as hear other partners and companies discuss their concerns and milestones at a panel discussion and reception by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

 

Directly afterwards, part of the team travelled to Uganda again to take part in the Energy & Minerals Week 2021 in Kampala, hosted by the Ugandan Ministry of Energy & Minerals Development (MEMD). We ware able to exhibit our product at their fair and showcase the convenient and clean cooking capacities of the ECOCA solar cookstove.

Thank you to everyone who has joined us on our journey this year, everyone who has been with us from the start, as well as the many contacts & partners we got to know and work with throughout 2021.

 

We are grateful for the support and interest in our product and look forward to starting the new year with full speed and motivation, to provide as many families as possible with our ECOCA solar powered electric cookstove, enabling access to clean cooking and energy.

Watch the full recap video on YouTube for more insights:

Merry Christmas & a happy New Year to You and your families from the entire Pesitho Team!

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