In Hassa Hissa Camp in West Darfur, women are learning how to make stoves that not only reduce the time spent cooking, but also reduce their risk of being harassed when collecting firewood.

Round, made of clay, donkey waste and sand, with a handle on either side, the small stoves don't look like much. But they have meant a huge difference in the lives of the women in Hassa Hissa camp, just outside of Zalingei town, as the stoves use far less firewood than traditional fireplaces, which usually consist of a few stones packed around the fire.

"Before I had the improved stove, I went daily for six hours to collect firewood outside of the camp. Now I only go for one hour and I will have enough wood for two weeks," says a woman dressed in a blue traditional tob, the cloth that women wrap around themselves.

ACT/Caritas has trained more than 100 women in Hassa Hissa camp in making the stoves, as well as in how they work. The training workshops were set up after a survey amongst displaced women in the camps highlighted women's dependency on finding firewood outside the camps and the risk this exposed them to when they collected the wood. Reports of harassment, beatings and rape were everyday occurrences.

The woman in blue pulls up her tob, displaying a big scar on her leg. She tells how five months ago she was beaten and raped when collecting firewood. Today she will only collect wood if together with a large group of women.

She is alone with her nine children. The extra time not spent cooking, she now spends around her small hut doing housework: cleaning, washing the children's clothes and the children, a never-ending job in the dusty camp.

A meal after twenty minutes

Besides being economic and efficient, the stove can also be cleaned, is not as smoky as an open fire, and is safer than the traditional fireplace.

"It is very good for cooking," says a younger woman, demonstrating how the stove works. "It only takes me 20 minutes to cook instead of two hours," explains the mother of six.

Like all the other families in the camp, she cooks asida, a porridge that she makes from the milled grain given them by the humanitarian agencies working in the camp.

"The women in the camps have many responsibilities. They are often alone with their children, because their husbands have either died in the war or have gone away to earn money for the family," says one of the community mobilizers who are training the women.