In 2020, Pesitho revealed that we would be part of a new project developed with partners CARE Denmark and CARE Norway, establishing the worlds very first sustainable refugee camp.

Due to Covid 19, we had unfortunate delays in building our portion of the camp which is our solar-powered community ECOCA kitchens. These kitchens allow access to energy for cooking meals for the family without being exposed to harmful smoke and emissions, also electricity to charge mobile phones and battery-powered household lamps.

Today, we are incredibly happy to announce that production is back on, and we are once again starting to see our plans come to life.

In March 2021, the Pesitho team travelled to Uganda to assist local contractors at the Camp in assembling the community kitchens installed inside buildings from LifeShelter. We were able to survey the first structures being built as well as the ongoing installations. So far, we are very impressed with how the project is evolving, with each community kitchen consisting of 10 ECOCA stations available for families to use, providing access to solar-powered energy for cooking and electricity for charging small items.

As you can see in the pictures below, the Life Shelters have a unique shape, making them easy to recognize amongst other buildings in the area. There will be three shelters zones strategically placed around the settlement, to ensure adequate access to the residents. Since the communal kitchens are solar-powered, we aim to reduce firewood consumption not only reducing deforestation in the surrounding woodland areas but also reduce exposure to harmful pollutants present while burning firewood. This also means that families, particularly women and children, can avoid the arduous task of collecting firewood and instead have a close-by facility for their daily cooking and charging needs. We are looking forward to giving more updates as our project progresses.

You can find out more about Camp Plus here: CAMP +

What is innovative about this project?

The vision of the CAMP+ project is to create the world’s first climate-positive refugee camp. The aim is to define and test a model for a self-sustaining climate positive refugee camp that produces sustainable food and clean energy for 100,000 refugees. CAMP+ presents a holistic, integrated, and circular approach by including natural resource management planning, livelihood training, waste management, sustainable energy (for lighting, charging, etc.), sustainable cooking fuel and climate-smart agriculture and food production systems.
The model camp will integrate a mix of tested and proven solutions and programming, with new and innovative technology. (Source)

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In February 2021, the Pesitho team travelled to Northern Uganda, where our first local cooperative is situated, just outside of the Bidibidi Refugee Settlement. We have been working hard for many months to develop our cooperative, working in partnership Caritas Denmark and local partners CIDI and Caritas Uganda.

We are very excited to update you with more information on how the developments to the cooperative are coming along. Today we have updates straight from the field, Pesitho’s Director, Simon, takes us around the Cooperative building, and shows us where Marco and Nikki are busy training the local team in their new roles including sales, assembly and tracking. Our local team are members of both Bidibidi Refugee Settlement as well as the host community.

Watch Simons video updates here:

It has been crucial for Pesitho to include the local community in all phases of developing our cooperative, where we aim to improve the capacity of community members, livelihoods development, social cohesion between groups, as well as promoting local ownership to ensure a more sustainable and lasting business in providing access to clean and affordable energy for cooking.

The journey so far in developing our Cooperative has been a great experience and we are looking forward to start distributing our ECOCA solar-powered cookstoves to the communities. The ECOCA will not only provide affordable and clean access to energy for cooking, boiling water and charging electrical items like lamps and mobile phones but also functions as an alternative fuel to firewood. This means protecting the local environment reducing forestation also indoor air pollution associated with burning solid biomass (firewood and charcoal).

Read more about our work with the ECOCA here:

ECOCA Projects

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Since taking part in the Innovation Accelerator with World Food Programme, Thorben from Pesitho visited the WFP officers in Burundi this May to establish our work together. Pesitho and WFP will be conducting a ‘willingness to pay’ assessment, which helps us gauge the best ways to set up a payment system that best suits our ECOCA end users. This is an exciting project for us moving onto the next stages of our business development how we can best supply a clean and affordable solution to the cooking needs of vulnerable people. We hope to give you some updates on our work in Burundi very soon.

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Since installing ECOCA cookstoves to 50 families at the Bidibidi Refugee Settlement, we have had some updates from Simon from Pesitho and some of our great partners at Caritas Uganda. Simon has been working hard conducting technical training with the team from Caritas, ensuring there are on the ground partners, who are from both the local community and residents of the settlement, can address any technical issues with the ECOCA.

Cooking

Many of the families who have received an ECOCA have stated that they prefer the taste of their food. Since most of the dishes cooked tend to require boiling, such as rice, beans or porridge, cooking over fire can often result in small pieces of ash falling into the pot, making the food taste very bitter. Other times there is an overwhelming taste of smoke which takes away the intended flavours of the dish.

Simon was able to take part in one of the dish creation activities, where our Caritas partners test out different dishes cooked on the ECOCA. This time it was an omelette.

The pilot ECOCA has two heat options: low and high. Using high is for cooking meals like beans and rice. Low is for reheating meals since most families tend to cook a large meal at lunch time and reheat the food for their meal in the evening.

To make an omelette, simply select high. Add some oil followed by eggs and let the omelette cook. Place the lid on the pot to allow the food to cook faster.

Firewood

Although it is still early stages, many of the ECOCA households have already commented on reducing their firewood consumption. This has not only reduced costs for many families, but also the time spent for on collecting firewood when purchasing is not an option – an arduous task than can take between 2-6 hours.

ECOCA Lamp

Having the LED lamps not only make indoor cooking late at night possible with the lamp being shared between 2 rooms, but also household chores, homework sessions, reading time ( 7/15 families mentioned their home has become a study home for neighbouring children), going to latrines late at night and also having more time for children to stay up and play. Families have said their home is now ‘full of light’ and that many ‘feel more secure’ now with their lamps!

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We have had some updates from our team in Myanmar, where Marco from Pesitho, has been working hard training our partners from Karuna Mission Social Solidarity (KMSS) on resolving any issues with the ECOCA cookstove. Earlier this year Pesitho and Caritas installed 50 solar powered ECOCA cookstoves across Kaupaunpin and Kapen villages in Myanmar. Having local field staff readily available to assist with any technical challenges that may arise is crucial for the longevity of the cookstove.

Cooking

So far, the ECOCA families have been cooking with the ECOCA between 2-3 times a day making dishes like soups, vegetables, rice, curry and boiling water several times a day. The families have stated they do not miss cooking with traditional fires which create a lot of smoke, often giving them headaches, sore throats and making them dizzy.

Lamps

Many ECOCA families mentioned they greatly benefit from the ECOCA additional features including the portable LED lamps, which have become the permanent light source in the families living rooms and kitchens. The lamps help to extend their daily activities into the evening, also help save money on candles.

Daw Iodesia, shown in these photos, can be seen making a standing lamp from the ECOCA LED lamp. Daw has explained that she now uses 1/3 of the firewood than used before since receiving the ECOCA.

Firewood

Being solar powered, the ECOCA aims to reduce firewood consumption and the impact this has deforestation and illnesses associated with burning solid fuels. According to Clean Cooking Alliance, in Myanmar, ‘93% of the population relies on solid fuel for their household cooking needs, contributing to environmental deforestation and desertification. Clean cooking is instrumental to improving energy access in Myanmar’ (Clean Cooking Alliance).

Information from Caritas Denmark shows within Kaupaunpin and Kapen villages, pieces of plastic have become fuel for lighting fires and even for cooking, for many of the villagers due to the lack of firewood. The smoke from the fire has therefore become a lot more harmful than it was before.

This makes the need for access to clean and affordable energy particularly when it comes to cooking, even more important to ensure improved livelihoods for vulnerable people and to continue to shine a light on such a large issue that takes place in everyday life.

References:

Clean Cooking Alliance,. Myanmar Fact Sheet, Washington DC: The Clean Cooking Alliance .

This week we are celebrating the first ever installations of our ECOCA solar powered cookstove at the Bidibidi refugee Settlement in Uganda. It has been months of planning and hard work but we are so happy that the day has finally arrived. Simon, our COO has been working with Caritas Denmark and Caritas Uganda to identify 50 households who will be receiving the ECOCA. Each family will receive person training on all the cooking and additional, ensuring that the families feel confident to use their new cookstove every day.

We have included additional features in the cookstove, including a USB port that allows mobile phone and small appliance charging. The ECOCA also comes with two lamps, one that can be used for bringing light into the home – great for late night homework sessions and the other for more mobile use like walking to latrines at night. These families will now have access to a clean and sustainable source of electricity that provides 2 cooked meals a day for their families (most families tend to cook twice a day, cooking larger quantities at lunch to consume later for supper). We thank everyone for supporting our work so far!

The WFP Innovation Accelerator provides support to start ups like ourselves who create solutions worldwide hunger. We were able to work for WFP staff who offer hands on support and WFP operations.

To end the week, our CEO Thorben presented live on WFPs Facebook page our work with the ECOCA. Our goal is to install 50,000 ECOCAs to support the families who rely heavily on firewood and charcoal for cooking, improving their livelihoods all around.

“At Pesitho, we have spent the last year prototyping and testing Solution-A with refugees. We know the importance of testing in the right environment with the right end users. I am happy to let you know that tomorrow morning, the first 50 ECOCAs will be arriving at the Bidibidi Settlement in Uganda where we will be installing these. We will then go onto Myanmar to install the next 50 units”- Thorben Nielsen.

 

Following installation, Pesitho, Caritas Denmark and students from Aarhus University will spend 3 months retrieving feedback on from the beneficiary families in order to develop the next solution.

You can watch the entire broadcast here. Fast forward to minute 00:26:00 to see our CEO, Thorben in action.

Pesitho has developed the a device which they call ‘ECOCA’. It is a solar cooker and solar home system in one. It consists of an electric stove top, a battery pack and a solar panel array. This provides a potential solution to the deforestation taking place in many settings globally, especially around many refugee settlements. The ECOCA comes with a highly insulated pot which will keep food warm for hours. The cooker uses small, compact solar panels to generate electricity which is stored in the built-in battery.

In a standard configuration, an average sub-Saharan rural family will easily have its daily cooking needs covered by the cooker. The battery pack is sufficient to ensure efficient running of the kitchen for several hours after dark. The cooker is also fitted with a standard USB port for charging smartphones and an AUX power outlet for small appliances such as razors. The unit is equipped with an LED light, making indoor activities such as education and handcrafts possible after sunset without the usage of conventional fuel sources. In this way, the ECOCA also functions as the family’s power supply with no operational costs.

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Image from Caritas Denmark

The new collaboration between the engineering company Pesitho and Caritas was presented in conjunction with Caritas Denmark’s Annual Meeting on September 29 at Magleås Course Center.

“I’ve always had a dream of becoming an entrepreneur. And then I just suddenly thought, we have the idea to make a difference” says Thorben G. Nielsen, CEO and founder of Pesitho. He resigned from Siemens to devote himself to the development of solar-powered micro-kitchens.

“The collaboration with Caritas Denmark gives us a unique opportunity to test our solar cell-based micro-kitchens, so that refugees and the poor in the global South can access a sustainable energy supply, which they can simultaneously pay for,” emphasizes Thorben G. Nielsen, who have just been to Myanmar with Caritas. Pesitho works closely with students and researchers from Aarhus University.

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