Mettmenstetten, 15.11.2023

500,000 energy-saving cookers for Madagascar

The non-profit organisation ADES produces solar and energy-saving cookers in Madagascar and sells them to the local population at discounted prices. The 500,000th ADES cooker has now reached a family in Madagascar.

For 22 years, the Swiss-Madagascan non-profit organisation ADES has been protecting nature in Madagascar and creating perspectives on poverty and rural exodus. More than 90 per cent of Madagascar's original forest has already been lost: an existential threat to the population as well as to the island's unique biodiversity. ADES uses solar and energy-saving cookers to reduce fuel consumption in one of the poorest countries in the world, where almost the entire population cooks over an open fire. The cookers are produced locally and distributed to the population at favourable conditions. In order to have a broad and sustainable impact, ADES supports cooker production with reforestation and educational measures.

ADES has reached an important milestone with its 500,000th cooker. Each of these cookers protects nature in Madagascar, improves the situation of a Malagasy family and protects the climate at the same time. ADES has created more than 250 permanent jobs, enables more than 250 independent resellers to earn an income and a further 250 or so additional jobs have been created with suppliers. Thanks to steady growth in recent years, ADES is expected to produce 100,000 cookers in 2023 alone.

Tsinaherina Sahambo, owner of the 500,000th ADES cooker, explains:

"We have been using ADES cookers for five years now. They are very practical for us and they are also good for the environment as they reduce deforestation. The cookers are economical and produce much less smoke. This also has a positive effect on our food: Our meals now taste less like smoke."