Clean Cooking Advocacy Project for Young Women & Girls
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Clean Cooking Advocacy Project
Over 60% of Nigerians about 120 million people still rely on firewood, charcoal, and other solid fuels for cooking. This leads to severe health risks, especially for women and children, with over 95,000 deaths annually linked to indoor air pollution. Nigeria is among the top five countries globally for deaths caused by household air pollution.
The use of firewood also drives deforestation, contributing to climate change, desertification, and environmental degradation, with Nigeria losing about 400,000 hectares of forest yearly.
The clean cooking crisis is a public health, gender, environmental, and development issue. Without urgent action, Nigeria risks continued loss of lives, deeper poverty, and failure to meet Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In many rural communities across Nigeria, including Tarka LGA, Benue State, the use of firewood for cooking remains prevalent, especially among young girls and women. This traditional practice exposes them to harmful indoor air pollution, increases their risk of respiratory diseases, and contributes to environmental degradation due to deforestation. In addition, the time spent gathering firewood reduces the time available for education and personal development, thereby limiting the potential of young girls.
The Story of Mercy – Age 14
Mercy is a bright, determined 14-year-old girl who lives with her widowed mother and three younger siblings in Tarka. Every morning before school, Mercy walks nearly two kilometers to fetch and break firewood. By the time she returns and starts the fire to prepare the family’s breakfast, her eyes sting from smoke and her body smells of burning wood. During our first visit, Mercy shyly admitted that she often misses school or dozes off in class from exhaustion.
When we introduced the clean cooking advocacy program in her communuity, Mercy was one of the most attentive girls. She complained of how her eyes burns daily after cooking with firewood and how the smoke affects her health making her sick. For the first time, Mercy saw a future where cooking didn’t mean choking on smoke or losing hours collecting firewood.
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