Grameen Swapna

Every day, 3 billion people (500 million households) rely on solid fuels to power their traditional stoves. 2 billion tons of biomass, burned each year. Exposure to air pollution typically up to 100 times more than recommended as healthy by WHO. 2 million people die annually. Up to 40% of household income spent on fuel. Up to 5 hours a day spent on collecting fuel, Women and children disproportionally impacted

Around the world, billions of people are still dependent on wood and other forms of biomass to cook every meal. Cooking with wood over an open fire causes a variety of environmental, economic, and human health problems. Grameen Swapna’s mission is save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and preserve the environment by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient cooking stoves and fuels. Grameen Swapna have been working with partners and local community members to design clean cook stoves that greatly reduce deadly indoor air pollution, deforestation, and high fuel costs. These cook stoves are designed according to specific cooking needs and cultural context. In rural Bangladesh, the energy consumption for lean and efficient cooking stoves outstrips the demand for all other uses of energy. Grameen Swapna has launched a program to promote improved cook stoves in Bangladesh to address the high demand for biomass fuels and indoor air pollution caused by cooking on polluting, traditional stoves.

Each cooking stove decreases a family’s need for firewood by 50-70%, as compared to standard open fire cooking, and reduces carbon emissions by at least 1.5 tons per year. When vented to the outside of the home, these improved cooking stoves also decrease indoor air pollution, which is responsible for the death of 4 million people, mostly women and children, every year. Our Clean cooking stove program is also unique because we build all of our stoves in-country, using locally sourced materials and creating much needed jobs. Grameen Swapna has been installed in No. 4795 improved clean cooking stoves to 4795 household.

Benefit of Improve cooking stove
• Saving in fuel which also reduces time spent on collecting fuel or money where fuel has to be bought. It can save up to 50-60% of the fuel used in traditional stove
• Improve cooking stove lessens the blackening of the cooking pots.
• Less impacts on forests and energy resources.
• Reduction in GHG emission.
• Socio-economic benefits include job creation from production, sale and maintenance (Barnes et. al).
Environmental Impact
• Reduction of fuel wood consumption by about half in comparison to that consumed by traditional cooking stove.
• Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions

Health Impact
• Fewer respiratory disease, particularly lower respiratory infections such as pneumonia among children and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among women.
• Fewer eye problems as well as other health problem such as headache
• Reduced fire hazard in the kitchen

Gender Impact
• Reduced drudgery of women as they spend less time collecting firewood, cooking and washing dishes
• Improved health of women due to reduced exposure of smoke
• Increased participation by men in kitchen work because of clean environment