One of the major challenges facing Africa is that of meeting energy needs without further jeopardizing its environmental security.  The most basic of the energy needs is that of cooking food.  This basic need is no longer as simple as gathering loose twigs and branches, and is leading to massive deforestation with the resulting desertification and deterioration of the global climate.

The exploding population throughout the African continent has hastened the ever-increasing need for firewood, severely enhancing the degradation of land. This land abuse is not likely to decrease unless rural residents are given another method of food preparation. 

Utilizing petroleum-based heat-generating devices makes the long-range prospects of solving the problem recklessly vulnerable to supply, price, and political variations. 

This project is seeking to take preventive steps before further environmental degradation occurs by the inauguration of a program which will introduce the widespread use of high-quality solar cooking appliances as an alternative, eliminating the need for 70% of the fuel wood currently consumed.

The plan recommends the supply of energy for cooking purposes through small modular units as the most competitive and viable for most urban working class families and rural communities. The project takes a concept that has been around for centuries and incorporates more recently developed materials to produce the world’s most effective solar cooking devices, which can meet up to 70% of the cooking needs of African families.  

Background
Born in Africa [Uganda], the founder Prince Ronald Mutebi [a Rotarian] and member of Rotary Club of Rogers Park in Chicago as well as Kiwatule Rotary club in Uganda, became intrigued with this technology when he attended a Rotary International conference in the USA. Due to his interest in this technology, Ronald was appointed to the Rotary International Temple Solar Project Board to be its the Sub-Saharan Africa Coordinator. Temple Solar Project is the worldwide Rotary program that distributes solar ovens, which are donated by other Rotary Clubs all over the world, to communities and organizations.

Through this program Ronald has been involved in solar cooking as projects carried out by the Rotary Clubs in Uganda. Ovens have been donated to schools, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other private organizations in Uganda, the latest being a shipment of ovens sent to the IDP [Internally Displaced People] Camps in the Northern Uganda.

He has tested and demonstrated the effectiveness of the solar cookers in the Ugandan sun and the results have been phenomenal. He has carried out demonstrations for Government officials, most notably the ministers of the Finance and Energy as well as demonstrations done for the First Lady of Uganda.