TWP Selected as Foundation Beyond Belief Beneficiary

Foundation Beyond Belief (FBB) is a charitable foundation created to focus, encourage and demonstrate generosity in the secular humanist community. FBB highlights five charitable organizations per quarter. Their 1,300+ members join by signing up for a monthly automatic donation in the amount of their choice, then set up personal profiles to indicate how they would like their contribution distributed among the featured causes.

Trees, Water & People was selected as a 2013 second quarter beneficiary in the “Natural World” category for our “unique approach to protecting our natural world.”

“Not only is the work Trees, Water, & People doing worthwhile, but the model they’ve put together is something that, if replicated, could result in more culturally competent programs throughout our world.”

Among other considerations, beneficiaries are chosen for efficiency, effectiveness, moderate size (annual budget under $10 million), compatibility with humanist focus on mutual care of this world and this life, and geographic diversity. All categories feature secular organizations with the exception of “Challenge the Gap,” which gives members the option of supporting one progressive, non-proselytizing religious organization each quarter.

Thank you to Foundation Beyond Belief! We are honored to be a Q2 beneficiary.

Warm Wishes from El Salvador

We recently received this letter from Armando Hernandez Juarez, our long-time partner in El Salvador and Director of Arboles y Agua para el Pueblo. Armando is a leader in environmental conservation in Central America and we are honored to work with him.  His words meant so much to all of us here at Trees, Water & People that we thought we would them with you too!

(Letter translated by Sebastian Africano)

TWP’s International Director, Sebastian Africano (left) and Armando Hernandez Juarez (right) stand with a clean cookstove beneficiary in El Salvador.

Dear Richard Fox and our family at Trees, Water & People,

My sincere congratulations on celebrating 15 years of achievements, contribution to the environment and thus to this land that gives us life, food and clothing.

What better way to celebrate 15 years of TWP than with the satisfaction we get from raising the dignity of the people whom we support with your projects, and with the tireless effort and human sensitivity with which the TWP family does its work.  

On this occasion I also take other opportunity to warmly greet another of the pioneers of this work, I refer to Mr. Stuart Conway; a great benefactor and visionary, as his efforts have led to concrete works in our country El Salvador, benefiting a large number of families and communities through the establishment and production of countless trees that have protected groundwater resources, climate and forest recovery in general, as well as the provision of stoves that have actually contributed to improving the socioeconomic conditions of families have benefited from this project.

I do not want it to go unnoticed that the unconditional efforts of the TWP family have also helped reduce pollution levels and therefore prevent infectious diseases in families and communities who have been favored with latrines projects.

It is gratifying that our work in El Salvador through TWP leaves a trail of impact in communities and even public and private institutions and service organizations such as the Peace Corps Office who use our support to develop projects that benefit the target population of their programs.

Trees, Water & People Family, may the fifteen years that we celebrate on this occasion be multiplied continually.

Respectfully, if you will allow me, receive my thanks for being part of TWP.

Attentively,

 Armando Hernandez Juarez

Notes from the Field: Lighting Homes in “Last Mile” Communities

by Richard Fox, Executive Director

I recently returned from visiting our friends at PowerMundo in Peru. What a great trip!  PowerMundo and TWP are currently partnering on a project with the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA).  Together, we are distributing Cleantech solar products, primarily to “last mile” communities in rural areas of Central America and Peru, as part of our State Department funded project Improving Access to Clean Energy in Latin America.

Cleantech solar products are a high quality, low-cost solution to energy poverty – illuminating homes and providing mobile phone charging at the household level. These innovative products reduce daily energy expenses and indoor air pollution associated with current alternatives for home lighting (such as kerosene), and they pay for themselves within 6 – 18 months.

I am constantly inspired by the collaborations we have formed to help increase the deployment of these renewable, energy efficient technologies. This work is helping to reduce emissions in Latin America while increasing low carbon economic growth. A win-win-win for people, the environment, and local economies.

TWP’s International Director, Sebastian Africano, joined me with our Honduras partners, Ben Osorto and Ivan Caballero, to facilitate South-South collaboration between Central America and Peru while providing some project review and fiscal oversight duties.  On top of meeting our business obligations, we were particularly glad to get up in the high mountainous Quechua towns in the Cusco area.

Richard Fox and Lisa Kubiske (center) visit with clean cookstove beneficiaries in Honduras.

On this same trip, I also made my way to Central America, where I spent the afternoon with Lisa Kubiske, the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras.  After a delightful lunch, we visited with Tim Longworth at Zamarano University,  located in the valley of the Yeguare River in Honduras. Here, we saw the Stove Testing Facility at the university and demonstrated some of our Cleantech products to the Ambassador. While in the area, we also had the opportunity to visit some of our clean cookstove recipients and received valuable feedback about how the stoves performed in the most important facility – people’s homes!

Today, billions of people around the world are still without access to electricity in their homes, and billions more are still cooking over an open fire to cook every single meal. Regional cooperation and collaborations like this are helping to light homes around the world and bring safe cooking solutions to families. Stay tuned for more updates!

To learn more please visit our website.

Photo of the Week: Clean Cookstoves Save Children’s Lives

About this photo

Sebastian Africano, TWP’s International Director, took this picture during a recent visit to Nuevo Todos Santos near Escuintla, Guatemala. This young boy is standing in front of his families Emelda clean cookstove, installed by TWP and our partner organization, La Asociación de Forestería Comunitaria de Guatemala Ut’z Che’.

In Guatemala, more than 71% of the nation’s 14.7 million people are dependent on wood to cook every meal. Cooking over an open fire causes a wide array of human health issues, affecting women and children the most. In fact, it is estimated that 4 million people die every year from exposure to smoke in the home. TWP’s clean cookstoves reduce deadly indoor air pollution by up to 80% and reduce fuelwood consumption by up to 70%.

Learn more at www.treeswaterpeople.org.

Notes from the Field: Partnering to Protect Guatemalan Forests

by Sebastian Africano, International Director

A community tree nursery in Central Guatemala that produces tens of thousands of tree seedlings each year.

It’s amazing to say that I’m writing this post from a tropical country where it snowed last week, and tomorrow I’ll be returning to my home in Colorado, where it’s been in the 50′s and dry for what seems like weeks.  Guatemala is a country I am just getting acquainted with after eight years working in Central America, and with which I’ve become fascinated, thanks to our budding relationship with La Asociación de Forestería Comunitaria de Guatemala Ut’z Che’.

Ut’z Ché (“Good Tree” in the indigenous Quiché dialect) was formed five years ago to advocate for the broad and permanent involvement of civil society in preserving the forests of Guatemala.  There are a number of incentives at work in Guatemala to protect the country’s remaining forests; most of these incentives are accessible only at the macro level – in other words, inaccessible to the hundreds of community-based organizations (CBOs) that engage in reforestation or forest preservation in their areas of operation.

Ut’z Ché acts as an umbrella group to 32 of these CBOs, helping them access funds, incentives, or programs for which they are clearly eligible, but which remain out of reach.  My favorite expression of their efforts is the re-definition of the internationally known mechanism REDD, to read: Reducing Exclusion in the Discussion of Deforestation.

A two-burner, clean cookstove built by TWP and Ut’z Che’ in a rural community of Central Guatemala.

Trees, Water & People began working with Ut’z Ché in 2011 to support several community nurseries, livelihood projects and cookstove improvements within Ut’z Ché’s network. Through this partnership, we’ve started a working relationship with four of Ut’z Ché’s CBO members in Central Guatemala, and have begun to deepen our support for their reforestation and clean-energy goals.  Last year alone, TWP supported the planting of 50,000 trees and built 25 clean cookstoves within the Ut’z Che’ network.

As I sit at Ut’z Ché’s yearly board meeting, I am particularly impressed that two-thirds of the more than 30 people here are leaders from the very communities Ut’z Ché serves, largely women and youth, and that all are given space to speak, present, and comment on organizational budgets, strategic plans, fundraising objectives and progress of ongoing projects. This is a stellar example of involving “el pueblo” in its own development, and creating leadership capacity from within to reach a common goal.

I am thrilled with the progress of this partnership so far, and see great collaborations to come.  We hope you will support our growing work with Ut’z Ché and the communities they serve in 2013 and beyond.

Community members in La Bendición, Guatemala bring maize (corn) to the mill to be ground for flour.

New Study: Household air pollution from cooking kills 4 million people annually

According to new global burden of disease estimates published in The Lancet, household air pollution (HAP) from cooking with solid fuels, such as wood, dung, coal, and charcoal, kills 4 million people annually. These findings double the previous known mortality rates of HAP from 2 million (WHO 2009) to 4 million deaths worldwide.

Everyday, approximately 3 billion people around the world depend on solid fuels for cooking meals and heating homes. Cooking over an open fire fills kitchens with smoke that contains dangerous levels of particulates and carbon monoxide. This heavy exposure has been likened to smoking five packs of cigarettes a day. Breathing the toxic smoke from open cooking fires can lead to acute respiratory illness, pneumonia, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The Global Burden of Disease 2010 study represents the work of 486 co-authors from 50 countries, an effort led by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Gloabl Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC) is a public-private partnership led by the United Nations Foundation to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and protect the environment by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions.

“This shocking doubling of previous estimates of HAP-related mortality necessitates a redoubling of Alliance efforts to ensure that cooking a meal is a life-enriching, and not life-taking, activity for all people,” said Alliance Executive Director Radha Muthiah.

Trees, Water & People (TWP) has worked with GACC as an implementing organization since 2010, when the Alliance was created. In the past 15 years, TWP has built more than 50,000 clean cookstoves throughout Central America and Haiti in an effort to address the environmental, economic, and human health issues caused by open-fire cooking and HAP.

More information about the new global burden of disease study please visit the GACC website.

Photo of the Week: Clean Cookstoves Saving Lives in Honduras

Our partnership with the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA) supported the construction of 600 clean cookstoves in Honduras and El Salvador in 2012. Thank you ECPA!

Carbon Offsets for Businesses

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Visit our website to learn more about offsets for your business!

 

TWP and AHDESA Inaugurate the Renewable Energy Training and Demonstration Center

Ignacio Osorto (center), Director of AHDESA, and TWP International Director Sebastian Africano (right), cut the ribbon on the new Renewable Energy Training and Demonstration Center in Honduras.

On August 17th, TWP and our partner organization, Asociación Hondureña para el Desarrollo (AHDESA), inaugurated the Renewable Energy Training and Demonstration Center in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The Center has been developed as part of our work with the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas’ (ECPA) Improving Access to Clean Energy in Latin America initiative. Since November 2011, TWP and AHDESA have been working as “Implementing Partners” with the ECPA to promote clean energy, low carbon development, and climate-resilient growth in Central America.

The new Renewable Energy Training & Demonstration Center is powered by a 2kW solar PV system and wind energy. In addition, AHDESA has all of the clean cookstove models that they produce on display as well as an array of Cleantech products that they sell to communities who lack access to the energy grid.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the event!

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Photo of the Week: Clean Cookstoves in the Honduran Highlands

A young Lenca girl stands next to her family's Justa clean cookstove, which reduces fuelwood consumption by 75% and removes up to 90% of indoor air pollution in the home. (Photo by Jon Becker 2012)