Ishwar Rauniyar from Nepal won the third prize in an international photo contest organised by the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DEVCO).

Rauniyar, the Communications Officer at the DanChurch Aid (DCA), Nepal office, received the prize at a ceremony in Brussels, Belgium on 6th June.

Entries from Peru and France bagged the first and the second positions, respectively, in the contest themed "Empowering Women in Sustainable Energy'.

Rauniyar's winning photo shows how an upgraded cooking stove in a rural part of Nepal is making women's lives easier contributing to health benefits and efficient utility of time.

The cooking stove is known for consuming less firewood than the traditional ones, and has many benefits. "It can serve to cook multiple dishes at a time, works as a room heater, especially in hills and mountains.

Moreover, it minimises health risks as the smoke evacuates through a pipe and the ashes collected aftermath make a good fertiliser for vegetable farm," said Rauniyar.

Speaking at the event in Brussels, Rauniyar added that the award is recognition that European countries have concern over development issues of the third world countries like Nepal.

In total, 99 photos were submitted for the contest. The top 30 were selected via votes out of which the winning photos were selected by the jury comprising of the internal personnel of the European Commission's DEVCO as well as an external photographer.