Before the first meal is served, the day has already taken something from many women in Malawi.
For some, it is hours spent walking in search of firewood. For others, it is money spent buying charcoal. Inside their homes, cooking brings another burden as smoke fills poorly ventilated kitchens and turns an ordinary family meal into a daily health risk.
In communities across Blantyre District, women are now beginning to ask a bigger question: what if cooking did not have to come at the expense of their health, income, forests and dignity?
That question is at the heart of the Eco-Feminist Energy Justice Project, a community-led clean cooking initiative supported by SHINE Collab.
Temwanani Banda knows the burden well.
“Some women in my community walk long distances just to gather firewood, spending hours that could go toward their families, their businesses, or their rest,” Banda said.
“Others buy charcoal, which is expensive and fills our homes with smoke every time we cook. Every meal comes with an invisible cost to our health and to the environment around us.”
For women who carry the responsibility of putting food on the table, the energy crisis is not an abstract climate debate.
It is the walk to the forest.
It is the price of a bag of charcoal.
It is the smoke inhaled while preparing nshima.
And it is the shrinking supply of trees around communities that once relied on them for fuel.
The project, implemented by Get Together Youth Organization in partnership with civil society groups under the Zingwangwa Youth Network, is seeking to turn these everyday experiences into a platform for action.
With funding and technical support from SHINE Collab, the initiative brings women into community dialogues and participatory learning circles where they can discuss energy, environmental protection, health and their rights.
The approach is deliberately different.
Rather than treating women simply as beneficiaries of clean cooking programmes, the project places them at the centre of conversations about the energy choices affecting their homes and communities.
Banda said this is helping women connect what happens inside their kitchens with wider questions of environmental and social justice.
In Blantyre District, an estimated 85 to 95 percent of households still depend on charcoal and firewood for cooking.
The burden falls particularly heavily on women and girls, who are often responsible for collecting fuel and preparing meals.
This means that a shortage of clean and affordable cooking energy can also become a shortage of time, money and opportunity.
Every hour spent searching for firewood is an hour that could have been spent running a small business, attending school, caring for children or resting.
Every kwacha spent on charcoal is money that could have gone towards food, education or other household needs.
And every day of exposure to household smoke carries consequences for health.
For SHINE Collab Executive Director Dr Melania Chiponda, these realities show why climate action cannot be separated from gender justice.
“Women’s stories must be placed at the centre of climate and development conversations,” Chiponda said.
“The challenges they face every day, from collecting fuelwood to dealing with the impacts of climate change, are not isolated experiences. They are part of larger systems that undervalue both women’s labour and the natural resources on which communities depend.”
That connection is becoming increasingly important as Malawi confronts worsening pressure on its natural resources.
Erratic rainfall, prolonged dry spells and environmental degradation are already affecting communities, while continued dependence on biomass fuels places additional pressure on forests.
But for the women taking part in the project, environmental protection begins with something much closer to home.
The kitchen.
Community members say the programme is helping them understand how household energy choices affect not only forests, but also family health and livelihoods.
For women, that understanding is opening up a different way of looking at their role.
They are not merely collecting fuel.
They are making decisions that affect household energy use, environmental conservation and the wellbeing of future generations.
Banda believes that shift in thinking is just as important as the clean cooking technologies themselves.
“It is about dignity, health, and recognising the role women play in protecting their communities and the environment,” she said.
“Women are not just users of energy; they are leaders in creating solutions that benefit families and future generations.”
That message goes beyond Blantyre.
Across Malawi, the transition away from traditional biomass cooking will depend not only on making cleaner technologies available, but also on ensuring that the people most affected by energy poverty have a voice in deciding what comes next.
For SHINE Collab, that means treating clean cooking as more than an environmental intervention.
It is a question of justice.
A woman should not have to choose between feeding her family and protecting her health.
She should not have to spend hours searching for firewood because cleaner alternatives are beyond her reach.
And protecting forests should not mean placing an even greater burden on the women who depend on them.
The women taking part in the Eco-Feminist Energy Justice Project are beginning to challenge that reality.
Their message is simple but powerful: clean cooking should not be a privilege reserved for those who can afford it.
It should be a right.
And women, who have carried much of the burden of Malawi’s energy crisis for years, want to help shape the solution.
For some, it is hours spent walking in search of firewood. For others, it is money spent buying charcoal. Inside their homes, cooking brings another burden as smoke fills poorly ventilated kitchens and turns an ordinary family meal into a daily health risk.
In communities across Blantyre District, women are now beginning to ask a bigger question: what if cooking did not have to come at the expense of their health, income, forests and dignity?
That question is at the heart of the Eco-Feminist Energy Justice Project, a community-led clean cooking initiative supported by SHINE Collab.
Temwanani Banda knows the burden well.
“Some women in my community walk long distances just to gather firewood, spending hours that could go toward their families, their businesses, or their rest,” Banda said.
“Others buy charcoal, which is expensive and fills our homes with smoke every time we cook. Every meal comes with an invisible cost to our health and to the environment around us.”
For women who carry the responsibility of putting food on the table, the energy crisis is not an abstract climate debate.
It is the walk to the forest.
It is the price of a bag of charcoal.
It is the smoke inhaled while preparing nshima.
And it is the shrinking supply of trees around communities that once relied on them for fuel.
The project, implemented by Get Together Youth Organization in partnership with civil society groups under the Zingwangwa Youth Network, is seeking to turn these everyday experiences into a platform for action.
With funding and technical support from SHINE Collab, the initiative brings women into community dialogues and participatory learning circles where they can discuss energy, environmental protection, health and their rights.
The approach is deliberately different.
Rather than treating women simply as beneficiaries of clean cooking programmes, the project places them at the centre of conversations about the energy choices affecting their homes and communities.
Banda said this is helping women connect what happens inside their kitchens with wider questions of environmental and social justice.
In Blantyre District, an estimated 85 to 95 percent of households still depend on charcoal and firewood for cooking.
The burden falls particularly heavily on women and girls, who are often responsible for collecting fuel and preparing meals.
This means that a shortage of clean and affordable cooking energy can also become a shortage of time, money and opportunity.
Every hour spent searching for firewood is an hour that could have been spent running a small business, attending school, caring for children or resting.
Every kwacha spent on charcoal is money that could have gone towards food, education or other household needs.
And every day of exposure to household smoke carries consequences for health.
For SHINE Collab Executive Director Dr Melania Chiponda, these realities show why climate action cannot be separated from gender justice.
“Women’s stories must be placed at the centre of climate and development conversations,” Chiponda said.
“The challenges they face every day, from collecting fuelwood to dealing with the impacts of climate change, are not isolated experiences. They are part of larger systems that undervalue both women’s labour and the natural resources on which communities depend.”
That connection is becoming increasingly important as Malawi confronts worsening pressure on its natural resources.
Erratic rainfall, prolonged dry spells and environmental degradation are already affecting communities, while continued dependence on biomass fuels places additional pressure on forests.
But for the women taking part in the project, environmental protection begins with something much closer to home.
The kitchen.
Community members say the programme is helping them understand how household energy choices affect not only forests, but also family health and livelihoods.
For women, that understanding is opening up a different way of looking at their role.
They are not merely collecting fuel.
They are making decisions that affect household energy use, environmental conservation and the wellbeing of future generations.
Banda believes that shift in thinking is just as important as the clean cooking technologies themselves.
“It is about dignity, health, and recognising the role women play in protecting their communities and the environment,” she said.
“Women are not just users of energy; they are leaders in creating solutions that benefit families and future generations.”
That message goes beyond Blantyre.
Across Malawi, the transition away from traditional biomass cooking will depend not only on making cleaner technologies available, but also on ensuring that the people most affected by energy poverty have a voice in deciding what comes next.
For SHINE Collab, that means treating clean cooking as more than an environmental intervention.
It is a question of justice.
A woman should not have to choose between feeding her family and protecting her health.
She should not have to spend hours searching for firewood because cleaner alternatives are beyond her reach.
And protecting forests should not mean placing an even greater burden on the women who depend on them.
The women taking part in the Eco-Feminist Energy Justice Project are beginning to challenge that reality.
Their message is simple but powerful: clean cooking should not be a privilege reserved for those who can afford it.
It should be a right.
And women, who have carried much of the burden of Malawi’s energy crisis for years, want to help shape the solution.
