What We Do

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The project aims to eliminate the preventable deaths in developing countries that are caused by cooking with a three stone open fire.

Nearly 2.3 billion people, about 1/3 the world's population prepare food for their families using an open fire in their home.  This inefficient cooking method exposes users to dangerous pollutants.

We train and supervise families in the process of building and maintaining their own clean cookstoves. In order to keep costs low and to ensure the organic growth of the project, we mostly use local materials that are readily accessible to homeowners. Each stove is custom made to accommodate the cooking pots used in the home. The project emphasizes personal and community ownership, which ensures that the stoves will continue to be used for years to come.  

The Cookstove Project was founded in 2013 by Rebecca Sommer after she heard of the devastating impact of these open fires on the health of women and children. As a mother of four girls, she was horrified to think that the act of cooking for one's family was one of the leading causes of death in sub-Saharan Africa.

The project built its first cookstove in the village of Nabiswere, Uganda in May of 2013.  That first cookstove is still going strong and its owner has become a trained cookstove master, helping others in his community.

The project extended into Nepal in 2014 and has installed 6,000 clean cookstoves to date.

In total we have built over 27,000 stoves impacting over 135,000 people.

 The Cookstove Project is a 501(c)3 US non-profit organization.

The project helps women and their families gain access to efficient, clean cookstoves through solutions that are unique to each country.

We promote the use of clean cookstoves that provide health benefits, cleanliness, aesthetics, and affordability.

Our emphasis is on personal and community ownership, which ensures that these clean cookstoves will continue to be used for years to come.