by Sylvia Nabanoba and Vanessa Zola (UNHCR) A switch to ethanol reduces risky trips in search of firewood, slows reforestation and creates healthier home environments for refugees in White Nile state. The glow from a matchstick lights up Alisa Deng’s face as she ignites her new ethanol cooking stove. The moment is significant for her and a thousand other families, as it marks the end of years of tedious and unsafe trips to gather firewood for cooking.
Since she fled conflict in South Sudan five years ago, the 35-year-old mother of three has had to undertake laborious day-long trips to an ever-dwindling forest in Sudan’s White Nile State to collect scarce firewood.