One of the major challenges facing Africa is that of meeting energy needs without further jeopardizing its environmental security.The most basic of the energy needs is that of cooking food. This basic need is no longer as simple as gathering loose twigs and branches, and is leading to massive deforestation with the resulting desertification and deterioration of the global climate.
The exploding population throughout the African continent has hastened the ever-increasing need for firewood, severely enhancing the degradation of land. This land abuse is not likely to decrease unless rural residents are given another method of food preparation. Utilizing petroleum-based heat-generating devices makes the long-range prospects of solving the problem recklessly vulnerable to supply, price, and political variations.
The Send An Oven project is seeking to take preventive steps before further environmental degradation occurs by the inauguration of a program which will introduce the widespread use of high-quality solar cooking appliances as an alternative, eliminating the need for 70% of the fuel wood currently consumed.
