Masai Clean Cookstoves initiative

We’ve been travelling all over the world for more than five decades now, getting to know destinations and the people who live in them. That means we get to understand their needs and come face to face with their everyday challenges. 

We believe that we should take care of the communities we visit, which is why we decided to set up the Travelsphere Cares initiative and donate from some of our tours. Here, we focus on a scheme you’ll experience on two of our Africa tours.

Smoke from cooking in enclosed spaces has a huge health impact, affecting millions in the developing world and causing many deaths each year. The Masai Clean Cookstoves scheme provides African women with training to construct and fit safe stoves in community buildings and family homes. The use of just one stove reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 3.6 metric tons per year, and there’s a 90% reduction of carbon monoxide levels in the home – removing the risk of low-level poisoning.

The stoves also eliminate the dangers posed by open fires to toddlers, and each also saves around 120 pounds of firewood each week, which means deforestation is reduced. The project is credited with empowering Masai women, who also learn how to install solar panels to homes in their villages.

On our ‘Tanzania Serengeti Safari’ and ‘Kenya & Tanzania Grand Safari’ holidays you’ll visit two local homesteads, one with an open fire and one fitted with a new cookstove, and you’ll learn about the huge difference the latter makes.

Your visit helps to support this vital scheme.