AVSI Rwanda organised a variety of activities - cooking demonstrations, football matches, and roadshows - to spread awareness on clean cooking and environmental protection.
These activities targeted different segments of the community, engaging people of all ages and genders, with the goal of ensuring that the message reached as widely as possible. By combining practical demonstrations with sport and community engagement, the initiative aimed to make environmental awareness accessible and engaging for everyone.
Cooking demonstrations and competitions
One of the highlights of the week was the cooking demonstration held near markets and offices - places where people naturally gather. Women prepared the same meal twice: once on a traditional three-stone stove and once on an Improved Cookstove (ICS). This hands-on comparison allowed community members to experience firsthand the advantages of the ICS: faster cooking times, significantly reduced firewood use, and far less smoke. Judges assessed the results based on cooking time and smoke levels, while community health workers enriched the activity by sharing important nutritional advice and safe cooking practices. This direct experience proved powerful in helping participants understand the practical and health benefits of cleaner cooking.
Football with a message
For men, football matches offered more than just sport. This activity was designed specifically to engage the male population, who are often distant from cooking matters. The pitch became an innovative space to reach them with important messages. Alongside the matches, panel discussions addressed indoor air pollution, gender equality, environmental protection, and children’s well-being. Experts explained how ICS technology reduces health risks, conserves firewood, and gives women more time for other activities. Announcements during the matches reinforced these messages, ensuring sport became a platform for awareness as well as entertainment.
Taking the message on the road
Roadshows brought the campaign directly into villages, taking messages even further. Vans decorated with banners and equipped with loudspeakers moved through communities, bringing awareness to clean cooking, health, and environmental protection. Local leaders and mobilisers conducted live ICS demonstrations, distributed leaflets, and answered questions, ensuring the information reached households far and wide. This outreach effort helped bridge the gap between project activities and community understanding.
Youth leading the way
Youth cooperatives played a central role in the week’s success. The Ruhango Cooperative for Improved Cookstoves and Briquettes (RCISB) and the Kinazi Biomass Technology and Technical Materials Cooperative (KBTMC) set up display stands to showcase their innovations in improved cookstoves and briquettes made from organic waste. Alongside them, Ruhango Itoshye Youth Cooperative, Green Ntongwe Youth Cooperative, and Cooperative Abishyizehamwe Kinazi supported by REDO presented their tree nursery initiatives, highlighting how reforestation efforts go hand in hand with clean energy solutions. Residents could explore these innovations up close, ask questions, and see how supporting such youth-led initiatives benefits both the environment and community livelihoods.
A step towards a healthier future
By the end of Environmental Week, the message was clear: clean cooking and sustainable practices benefit everyone. The Green Culture and Climate Change Resilience within Rwandan Rural Communities project, implemented byAVSI Rwanda and Rural Environment and Development Organization (REDO). with support from the Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security, demonstrated that communities in Ruhango can cut kitchen smoke, save resources, and work together toward a healthier, greener future.
Environmental Week reminded communities that small daily actions - choosing a cleaner stove, planting a tree, or supporting a youth cooperative - can have a real and lasting impact. These efforts contribute not only to protecting the environment but also to improving health, fostering equality, and creating opportunities for future generations.
These activities directly contribute to several Sustainable Development Goals, including Good Health and Well-being, Gender Equality, Affordable and Clean Energy and Climate Action showing how local actions can drive progress toward a sustainable future.
About the project
The Improved Green Culture and Climate Change Resilience within Rwandan Rural Communities three-year project, running from November 2023 to October 2026, is funded by the Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security and implemented by AVSI Rwanda, AVSI Foundation and Rural Environment and Development Organization Rwanda in partnership with Rwanda Polytechnic Corporate, TUMBA College and REMA (Rwanda Environment Management Authority) and Ruhango District.
It aims to promote sustainable forestry, agroforestry, and clean cooking solutions in Ruhango District, in the Rwandan South Province, contributing to climate change mitigation and improved well-being of rural communities. The project targets 4,800 vulnerable households, 100 youth, and the students of 13 schools, with an expected indirect impact on over 143,000 people across the sectors of Kinazi, Ntongwe, and Ruhango.
It focuses on reducing reliance on firewood, lowering greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation, and improving indoor air quality through the dissemination of Improved cookstoves and the promotion of afforestation activities.
The initiative also supports Rwanda’s efforts to meet its Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement by advancing low-carbon development and climate resilience