Open Space Cooking

The women commonly known as mama ntilie in Dar es Salaam, prepare their food in makeshift houses of cardboard or other hard boards such as cigarette boxes. Generally they cook in open spaces. They sometimes work with their children whom they carry on their backs or place near their cooking places. The smoke and fire itself is a threat to the health of both the mothers and the children.

When preparing doughnuts (maandazi) and rice cakes (vitumbua) or the flat cakes (chapati) they use cooking oil and charcoal along the corridors or verandas of their houses for example in Manzese, Buguruni and Kariakoo. Sometimes the charcoal may produce smoke and burst into flames. If there are children around, it is a great risk to their health. So whatever they do as women, it is a risk to their health.