admin | March 12, 2026
News Brief
In Tanzania’s capital Dodoma, students at Bunge Girls Secondary School are promoting clean cooking energy through a student-led Energy and Clean Cooking Club launched to reduce smoke and reliance on firewood and charcoal in school kitchens. After the school switched to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), cooking costs dropped and kitchen air improved for cooks and students alike. Through experiments, discussions and outreach, club members share lessons about health, forests and climate with their families and communities. As Tanzania pushes to expand clean cooking access, schools and youth advocates are helping households reconsider fuels and adopt options.
Inside the kitchen at Bunge Girls Secondary School in Dodoma, Mrs. Maria Joseph grips a wooden paddle and stirs a giant aluminium pot filled with rice. Steam rises as she lifts the grains from the bottom, careful not to let them burn.
Not long ago, the scene looked very different.
Mrs. Joseph says, “The smoke was too much.” She adds, “And it took a long time to prepare food.”
For years, Mrs. Joseph and other cooks prepared meals over firewood stoves in a smoke-filled kitchen. The air burned their eyes and throats, and cooking took hours for the hundreds of students who depend on school meals each day.
Today, the smoke has disappeared. Clean blue flames from gas stoves now heat the pots.
The change came when the school adopted liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) through Tanzania’s national clean cooking initiative.
The transition has also sparked a new student-led movement. Bunge Girls Secondary School has launched an Energy and Clean Cooking Club, where students learn about energy, health, and environmental protection while promoting cleaner cooking methods in their homes and communities.
Before switching to gas, the school spent heavily on firewood.
Mr. Richard Msana, the school’s headmaster, says, “When we were using firewood, we spent 10.5 million Tanzanian shillings (about US$4,000) in just three months. It was a heavy burden for the school.”
The school later switched to improved charcoal in an effort to reduce smoke, but the costs remained high.
Mr. Msana says, “With improved charcoal, we were spending about 2,753,334 Tanzanian shillings (around US$1,000) every month. It was still expensive.”
The turning point came when the school joined the government’s clean cooking initiative through a partnership supported by the Ministry of Energy. The program helped install an LPG system capable of cooking meals for the entire school.
Now, one tonne of gas lasts about two months.
Mr. Msana says, “Using gas, we have reduced our monthly costs from 2,753,334 to 1,355,300 shillings (about US$500). It has saved us a lot of money. And this energy is friendly to users, especially our cooks.”
For Mrs. Joseph, the difference is immediate. She says, “I enjoy cooking using these modern stoves. They don’t emit smoke. My eyes no longer itch.”
The introduction of clean cooking technology also sparked interest among students.
Teachers and administrators helped create the Energy and Clean Cooking Club, where students learn about the impacts of cooking fuels on health, forests, and climate. Club members conduct simple experiments comparing boiling times between charcoal and gas and calculate the weekly cost of charcoal used by their families.
Ms. Rehema Mallya, a Form Five student, says, “My parents think gas is too expensive.”
She adds, “But when you show them how much they spend on charcoal every week, they start to think differently.”
For some students, the issue is deeply personal.
Ms. Lilian Massawe, a 16-year-old student, says, “If my grandmother had a better cooking stove, she would not be coughing every night.”
Across Tanzania, household air pollution linked to traditional cooking fuels kills an estimated 33,000 people every year, according to government figures. Women and children are most affected because they spend the most time near cooking fires.
Collecting firewood also exposes women and girls to safety risks, while babies carried on their mothers’ backs often inhale toxic smoke in poorly ventilated kitchens.
The initiative at Bunge Girls Secondary School reflects a broader national effort to replace polluting fuels such as firewood and charcoal with cleaner alternatives.
Ms. Salome Makamba, Tanzania’s Deputy Minister for Energy, says, “Our goal is that by 2030, every household and every institution will be using clean cooking energy.”
She explains, “The use of clean cooking energy has increased from 6.9 percent in 2021. Today, in 2025, we have reached 23.2 percent.”
The transition is gaining momentum across Africa. At the 2024 Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa, global leaders pledged US$2.2 billion to accelerate the shift from polluting fuels.
Yet major gaps remain. According to the International Energy Agency, about 2.3 billion people worldwide still cook using polluting fuels.
In Tanzania alone, more than 30,000 large institutions such as schools, hospitals, and prisons serve meals daily to more than 100 people. Only about 1,136 currently use clean cooking systems.
At Bunge Girls Secondary School, students are already sharing what they learn beyond the classroom.
Members of the Energy and Clean Cooking Club are collecting information about cooking practices in their households and communities. They plan to share their findings with local officials and encourage families to adopt cleaner energy options.
Ms. Susanna Kibona, one of the club’s student leaders, says, “When I explain to my mother why smoke is dangerous, she listens differently.”
For the students, the lessons extend far beyond energy.
Ms. Mallya says, “Energy is not just electricity.” She adds, “It is about health, forests, climate — and our mothers.”
At Bunge Girls Secondary School, teenage girls are helping move Tanzania’s clean cooking transition from government policy into everyday kitchens — and preparing themselves to become leaders of tomorrow.
Photo: Students at Bunge Girls Secondary School in Dodoma pose during the launch of their Clean Cooking Energy Club, a student-led initiative promoting cleaner cooking and reducing household air pollution. Image © Kizito Makoye for Inter Presse Service (IPS)
This story is based on an article written by Kizito Makoye for IPS, titled “Tanzanian School Launches Energy Club to Promote Clean Cooking.” To read the full story, go to: https://www.ipsnews.net/2026/03/tanzanian-school-launches-energy-club-to-promote-clean-cooking/