Maasai Village, Tanzania

Lake Manyara National Park, Africa 

Photography // I visited the bomas (traditional homes) of the Monduli District, where I met the women who have been trained as stove engineers, observing and helping them build clean-burning stoves and install solar panels in their homes. I could hardly breathe for longer than a few minutes while inside the smoke-filled homes without stoves, but the pervasive joy of these Maasai villagers was truly inspiring.

In Tanzania, 95% of people rely on cooking with wood and coal. Women and girls spend hours walking to collect wood every day (making them vulnerable to assault and unable to use their time to go to school). Indoor smoke from open-fire stoves causes cancer, emphysema, pneumonia, blindness, and burns. The Maasai Stoves and Solar Project is working to install more efficient cookstoves across the Serengeti in order to cut down on smoke-related illnesses and empower communities.