Obamastove (Ethiopia) has survived years of civil unrest and a pandemic. Despite all these challenges, Obama stoves are still selling as fast as we can make them.

Obamastoves began in Ethiopia and has now expanded into Kenya through a joint venture with Kencoco, a manufacturer of charcoal briquettes from coconut husks, based in Mombasa.

Said Twahir (left), founder of Kencoco and Yusuf Tura (right), founder of Obmastove

There are two ways to make a cookstove. The modern (and expensive) method is in a factory with hydraulic pressing to cut, bend, and shape steel plus welders to connect steel and powder coating to prevent rust. This path costs millions of dollars to set up, and the stoves produced retail for tens of dollars in price. The other way is for artisans to make the stoves, one at a time, using little...

What does Star Trek have to do with cookstoves in Ethiopia? Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek set up the Roddenberry Foundation, and the foundation has granted $12,500 to Obamastove to help expand production.

Yusuf Tura came to Seattle as a lone refugee from Ethiopia at age 16 to escape war and conflict in the country at the time. Today, the Seattle cab driver’s life has been transformed by a decision he made after returning home in 2007. When he got to his home town, he was shocked. All the trees had been killed off and stripped away by pollution from stoves that burn wood and dung. The dirty fuels...

April-June 2014, Obamastove attended Fledge in Seattle, USA, an impact-focused business accelerator. In that program we worked on business planning, and it was there where Yusuf presented the Obamastove story in public for the first time.