Anna Chidzamahosi Bhikisa is a lady aged 48 years living with her husband and four children in Tapera village in Ward 16 of Chipinge district.  Their livelihood is centered on subsistence dryland farming which is characterised by persistent crop failures.

Before the programe her main energy source for cooking was primarily firewood sourced from Save Conservancy, across the Save river. Anna would travel long distances to fetch fire wood. This limited her participation in other livelihood activities as a considerable amount of time was spent looking for firewood. A great relief came for Anna and her family in 2020 when was trained in the moulding and use of tsotso stove during Natural Resources Management training under the SIRP.

Anna managed to mould her own tsotso stove which she uses now use for home cooking. “ With the tsotso stove I now take less time compared to when is used to use the traditional open fire. I just need a few twigs that I can prune from nearby trees  this saves me a  lot of time. The time I used to spend gathering firewood I now,  can engage in other income generating projects such as making detergents”. Anna is now moulding tsotso stoves for sale and is selling an average of 15 stoves per month to her community at US10.