A quick turn of the knob and the pot starts heating up. A few seconds of luxury, completely taken for granted. Somewhere in Ethiopia a mother is also heating up a pot for her family with fire created from wood, leaves, animal dung and crop residues.
Most households in Ethiopia still make use of traditional biomass energy as they lack stoves that can make use of other fuel sources. Often it is the women who needs to fetch the firewood, not only for their own families, but also to sell. This is the only income many of these families have. Most women get up before sunrise and cover vast distances to go and collect enough wood to sell. They then make the trip back to the markets carrying nearly 20kg of firewood on their backs.