Nova develops products and services by taking them through phases from a “bright idea” to a full-fledged large scale program. In the following figure the phases of development of solutions are depicted. All business units are involved in all phases, but in different ways. The Incubation business unit is mainly accountable for what is done in Phases 1-3, whereas the Implementation business unit is mainly accountable for what is done in Phases 4-6 (see the diagram below).
The aim during the Feasibility phase is to develop a solution that fits into and functions well within the patterns and dynamics of the single household. The aim during the Pilot phase is find ways to take the solution effectively to the wider community.
The phases are not strictly demarcated. During the Pre-feasibility and the Feasibility phases, for example, the way in which the eventual solution will be taken to scale must be kept in mind.
We are heading towards the end of 2018 and it is with gratitude that we look back upon a year filled with numerous achievements, hard work and learning curves. Here are some of the most noteworthy activities and achievements of 2018:
We concluded the process of installing new Brickstar stoves in 2500 households in the Muhlaba project area in June 2018
We held a Local Stakeholder Consultation meeting in each of our respective project areas, the Muhlaba and Nwamitwa Traditional Authority Areas
We conducted a series of group discussions with stove owners to understand the uptake, usage and impact of the stove in the household’s cooking activities
We performed our annual Kitchen Performance Test to evaluate the efficiency of the Brickstar stove
Figure 1 – Above left shows a stove owner who partook in our Kitchen Performance Test, and above right shows one of the fieldworkers who offered his assistance for the test
The prospect of enabling rural households, who have been making use of unclean cooking practices detrimental to their health and environment, to gain access to cleaner sustainable cooking methods, is the main drive and heartbeat of the Brickstar project. Here are some of the testimonies of the effects of the stove which we captured during this year’s interactions with some of the stove-owners:
“The stove is great, most of all it helps me because when I use it I’m able to make hot water for school children. After cooking dinner, I leave the water container on the stove over night, when they wake up they can use the water [to bath] because it is still hot. I’m using less wood. The stove is good. Since they built it, I haven’t used the open fire to cook, thanks.”
“The stove is good because it is preventing our kids from getting burnt by fire and since we have used it, they won’t get burnt, when we cook in the house its hot but where we cook now, where the stove is, it is very nice”
“For me I say this stove is good, firstly it has helped me a lot because sometimes my eyes are giving me a hard time I can’t see properly when I cook on the open-fire my eyes and head were painful, but ever since I started using that stove my eyes now are good. I would like to thank you for the stove that it saves our lives and our wood. In the past, when I used the open-fire I used so much wood but when I use the stove I only use 3 wood pieces and I cut it into smaller pieces. I would like to say thank you.”
One stove-owner also spoke about identity in relation to the stove and its use.
“In the past, I used the open fire because I am an African, it is in our blood. We made fire, and then came electricity, now the stove takes us back to fire and that is nice because the stove works well and fire is our tradition.”
Our project activities for the remainder of the year will entail compiling the Kitchen Test report, monitoring and evaluation of both project areas, and early in the next year we will commence with the installation of an additional 1000 stoves for new stove-owners in one of the existing project areas. We are looking forward to facilitating the expansion of this project, staying true to our vision of creating a healthy household culture in Southern Africa.
We thank you for your continued interest and support!
