Maputo youth take the baton

Maputo youth take the baton

“Use improved stoves to reduce charcoal consumption” – this was the central message in Maputo during the first round of campaigns in the Youth baton project. The overall theme in this round was renewable energy and Maputo youth groups had chosen to single out one technology: Efficient charcoal stoves.

The Mozambican campaign had two components: A door-to-door information campaign and information through dance, theatre and public debate at marketplaces. Stove-demonstration was an important part of the market place events: “The women don’t want to just hear talking” explains Domingos Pangueia, coordinator in Livaningo, “they want to see it in practice”.

Therefore, youth activists demonstrated the stoves by cooking chicken and rice in the marketplace on a traditional and on an improved stove so people could compare the differences themselves. This triggered the attention of many women who afterwards asked for telephone numbers so they could purchase a stove for themselves. The women were also offered to become resellers of stoves. This was one of the dissemination strategies in the campaign that the youth groups had planned themselves. In total, 5,000 stoves were sold during the campaign – a significant contribution to less charcoal consumption in Mozambique.