Over the past several months, Martin Koonce has developed many different stove models that use charcoal or wood to reduce the amount of fuel needed to cook a family meal. It is well known that the use of charcoal is a primary cause of deforestation and ATN is looking for alternatives in cookstoves as well as to charcoal itself.
In the village of Mwendo near the road to Gashora, the Hesironi family there was using a three stone fire. Martin Koonce and Heath Amos showed them how to build a rocket stove for burning wood. They then took eight earthen blocks and constructed a rocket stove used for burning wood that reduces their fuel usage by 50% or more. ATN hopes to now help the village of Mwendo by encouraging this type of stove construction in order to reduce their cooking fuel needs.