A Mission to Darfur

March 14, 2006

Ashok Gadgil and Christina Galitsky were among a team of researchers from the Environmental Energy Technologies Division who recently went to Darfur to test simple cookstoves made of sheet metal or cast iron, designed to use less wood or alternative fuels such as animal dung. A critical lack of fuel for cooking drives women to leave the safety of the camps, where they are exposed to potential violence as they walk farther and farther every day to find firewood.