A Lifeline Beside The Chulo

Suffering from a chronic disease since 2007, she still works every day in front of a chulo to cook food for her family. She is from Kalikot, one of the rural districts of Nepal, where many families still rely on traditional wood-fired chulos with very limited ventilation.

Although she has now switched to an improved chulo that requires less firewood, she spent nearly 30 years of her life cooking on a traditional one. For many people in her community, LPG gas is considered too expensive.

Even for those who can afford it, obtaining gas is often difficult because they live far from major urban centers.

As a result, wood-fired chulos remain the primary source of cooking fuel. Many women in the area suffer from various respiratory and chronic illnesses, but few realize that the smoke inside their own homes may be contributing to these health problems.

The woman in this photo once operated a larger hotel and still runs a small one today, spending countless hours cooking over a fire. Only after being diagnosed with a chronic disease she learned that the smoke she had been inhaling from her chulo for decades was likely one of the contributing factors to her illness. When we talk about air pollution, we often think of traffic, factories, and city smog.

Yet for many women in rural Nepal, some of the most dangerous air they breathe is inside their own homes.

Their kitchens become workplaces filled with smoke, and the health consequences often go unnoticed until it is too late. This is not just one woman's story.

It is the story of thousands of women across rural Nepal who continue to sacrifice their health while caring for their families.