Description
Project Name: Schools
Project Owner: POWA
Standard: Verra VCS
Project ID: 2616
Launched in 2018 by POWA, this pioneering program equips school kitchens across Gitega and Bujumbura with locally manufactured, high-efficiency cookstoves, replacing wasteful three-stone fires with a clean, sustainable fuel source: briquettes made from renewable biomass waste.
Burundi, a landlocked Least Developed Country, lost 40.5% of its forest cover between 1990 and 2010, with 90% of households relying on firewood and charcoal for cooking. Traditional school kitchens, using open fires with 10-15% efficiency, consume 2 kg of fuelwood per child daily, burdening families and accelerating deforestation at a rate of 100 hectares yearly. POWA’s institutional cookstoves (ICS) achieve 35% efficiency, cutting wood use by 50% and eliminating the need for parents to supply fuelwood.
The impact is profound: school attendance has soared from 75-85% to 98%, as children no longer skip classes due to lack of cooking fuel. Indoor air pollution, a leading cause of respiratory illness, has plummeted, creating safer kitchens for cooks and students. With 3,000 stoves already deployed across 150 schools, benefiting 45,000 students.
The stoves are produced locally in Bujumbura (capital city) by POWA, a private company founded by the creators of OBEN. Its production facility, sprawled across a 6-hectare site in Bujumbura, operates three dedicated stove-making lines. To ensure smooth distribution, the company maintains a fleet of 14 vehicles for supply chain operations and delivery logistics, supporting the project’s reach across the region.
Impact
Between 1990 and 2010, Burundi lost 40% of its forest due to deforestation.
The project avoids 100 ha of deforestation per year.
Traditional stoves produce harmful smokes.
The project reduces indoor air pollution and related risk to respiratory diseases.
It is difficult for parents to provide the 2kg of fuelwood per day and per schoolchild needed for the canteen.
Thanks to the biomass briquettes, the parents don’t need to provide any fuelwood.
Children living in deforested area are no longer afraid to go to school because they do not have cooking wood.
The attendance rate rose from 75-85% to 98%.
CSR Action
BQS is a labor intensive NGO providing jobs to 350 people. Each employee follows a four weeks annual trainee program.
BQS started a tree nursery to seed trees for replanting. To date, 300 hectares have been replanted.
BQS invests in the «energy efficiency restaurants program » for wich efficient stoves are installed in restaurants thus reducing budget for energy spending.
