Built in partnership with UNICEF Australia, Nakatomi created an innovation and entrepreneurship curriculum for Burundi, the poorest country in the world.

Rocket Stove

UNICEF Australia

For years, Nakatomi has partnered with Creatable to design and deliver creativity-led, STEM-based projects for high school students in Australia, while also providing training and support for teachers nationwide. UNICEF tasked Creatable and Nakatomi with developing reproducible STEM projects for students in Burundi, aiming to ignite their entrepreneurial spirit and inspire future careers in science and innovation.

Services

  • Strategy
  • R&D
  • Design
  • Prototyping

Problem to solve

Burundi, the poorest country in the world, is rife with economic and geographic challenges, from ongoing civil unrest to a lack of clean drinking water to significant deforestation. The future of the country depends on its youth, and by educating an entire generation, the nation could move towards prosperity.

Bold Idea

Empower Burundi’s youth by integrating an innovation and entrepreneurship curriculum for high schoolers, starting with teaching practical solutions to everyday problems — like building a more efficient home cooking device to reduce excess harmful smoke inhalation.

Nakatomi’s rapid learning capability has been truly impressive. Their ability to take an insight, apply it, iterate on it, and then learn from each iteration has de-risked our creativity while allowing us to explore uncharted territories.

Greg Attwells
Head of Creatable

How we got there

Learning

A strategic partnership with Creatable.

Since 2016, Nakatomi has partnered with Creatable to deliver creativity-led STEM education to high school students in Australia. We found that hands-on, interactive learning experiences that emphasise design thinking and entrepreneurial mindsets are key to maintaining student engagement. We then adapted these principles to suit high school students in Burundi.

A first principles approach.

We interviewed locals and the UNICEF team to understand their daily challenges, and indoor smoke inhalation emerged as one of the most pressing dangers. Not only are there associated health risks, it was even more dangerous for women and girls — who were responsible for collecting the firewood. The solution was to create a much more efficient wood-fired stove, using materials easily retrieved from the local environment.

To address this concern in a school setting, we proposed a project focused on improving the efficiency of cooking fires. More efficiently burned wood produces less ash and carbon monoxide, while generating more heat from less fuel. This project became known as the Rocket Stove.

A first principles approach.
Early renders and prototypes of the rocket stove.

Designing the stove in Sydney, for the people of Burundi.

The basic concept of the rocket stove — using an airflow inlet from below the solid fuel in a fireplace to enhance burning efficiency — has been known in the Western world since the 1800s. Similar low-smoke, efficient cooking fires, like the Dakota Fire Pit, may have been in use for thousands of years.

We designed and tested a variant that could be efficiently built from materials readily available in Burundi. After comparing various rocket stove designs with simpler open-pit and chimney fireplace designs, we found that the rocket stove burned more fuel completely and produced less soot with the same amount of wood.

Our close collaboration with Creatable at every step ensured that the projects could be implemented in a classroom environment. We illustrated the various scientific concepts and assisted in developing a textbook, which was later translated into French.

Teaching the teachers to build the future.

The Rocket Stove became part of the new STEM course in the Burundi education system. We adapted the materials to the local environment and taught dozens of teachers the core scientific principles, so they can pass it on to thousands of students.

The program’s impact has been profound. Students have not only learned about the Rocket Stove, but have also implemented the design in their homes, leading to healthier living conditions. One of the success stories includes a group of entrepreneurial girls who turned their learning into a thriving business, building and selling Rocket Stoves in their community.

The Creatable curriculum is now a permanent fixture in Burundi’s national education system, supported by a dedicated office within the Ministry of Education.

Looking ahead

We have designed a new initiative focused on sustainable farming practices. This next phase empowers students to experiment with innovative agricultural techniques at home, with the potential to scale these efforts to improve food security across their communities.

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