Trees, Water & People, in partnership with International Lifeline Fund (ILF), is helping Haitian families displaced by the earthquake rebuild their lives by launching a fuel-efficient cookstove project in Port-au-Prince which will produce much needed employment and allow families to safely prepare food, purify water, and save money.
Currently, our International team is supporting the manufacture of 1,000 fuel-efficient charcoal stoves for a pilot project, working with 10 local metal workers at the ILF compound in Port-au-Prince. Take a look at the process in the slideshow below:
Notes from the Field by Sebastian Africano, TWP’s Deputy International Director:
April 21st, 2011: Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Sebastian Africano hanging out with a group of children in the Bugonia district of Uganda.
As we begin to wrap up our Spring 2011 site visits, we begin to reflect on all that has passed since we left Fort Collins several weeks ago. My adventure began in Kenya in late February, where I spoke at the 2011 UNEP Sasakawa Prize Ceremony in celebration of this year’s laureates and the International Year of the Forest. This was followed by a 2-week trip to Uganda, where along with Fort Collins based partners, Rodelle Vanilla, we launched what will become TWP’s first African stove program. Soon after we found ourselves in Guatemala, traveling the country meeting with potential new partners in the country’s Altiplano, and then El Salvador, where we visited our partner Agua y Arboles para El Pueblo’s (AAP) new projects in communities surrounding an important protected area, Cerro El Aguila. This trip was punctuated by visits to their spectacular tree nursery, which is teeming with 28 species that will be planted throughout the country this rainy season. This journey will end 10 days from now in Haiti, where we are halfway into a visit with partners International Lifeline Fund (ILF) in Port-au-Prince, and working hard to get our urban stove commercialization project off the ground.
Sebastian Africano (R) and a local Haitian metal worker take a break from stove building.
Upon arrival to Haiti, and with the invaluable support of stove design consultant Brian Martin of Portland, Oregon, we headed into the field to check on stoves distributed 2 months ago, during Brian’s last visit. We collected valuable feedback from about 20 families, which began a discussion around design modifications, improvements, and production strategies. We then assembled a group of ten tin-smiths, some of which had worked with Brian and ILF in the past, who have now been contracted to cut and assemble 1,000 cookstoves in the next six weeks. No small feat, by any measure, but cohesion amongst the team members has been quick to form, and all share ideas, help eachother with challenging pieces, and take time to laugh and joke with us as they work.
Haitian metal workers work on building the Zanmi Pye Bwa (“Friend of the Forest”) fuel-efficient cookstove.
This week has consisted of getting to know our resource and talent pool, bringing in tools, equipment and materials from all over Port-au-Prince to centralize production at ILF’s offices in the capital. We introduced power tools to the stove production process, which is a break from the norm, but which has increased consistency and speed, allowing us to reach impressive volumes quickly. The office is now filled with a cacophony of metal-on-metal pings, bangs and crashes, as hundreds of charcoal bowls and other parts roll off the production line. Centralizing production without a factory site is challenging, but allows us to improve standardization of our product while offering these skilled metal workers a positive change of environment – getting them away from rough neighborhoods characterized by burning trash, dilapidated buildings, crowds and traffic. All in all, these workers have embarked on what we hope will be an uplifting rise out of poverty, gaining access to steady and dignified employment in what we intend to develop into a significant charcoal stove manufacturing operation over the next year.
Keep your eyes and ears on the Zanmi Pye Bwa (Friend of the Forest) project as it develops, and support TWP by spreading the word as we raise funds to increase our production capacity and impact over the coming months!
Sebastian Africano with some of his Haitian friends in an IDP camp in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Sebastian Africano, Deputy International Director at Trees, Water & People (TWP), has been chosen to receive a $25,000 scholarship to the Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI™) at the Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Santa Clara University. Mr. Africano is one of twenty social benefit entrepreneurs from around the world who have been chosen to receive full scholarships to participate in the GSBI™. The projects developed by participants will provide essential goods and services to the poor, and often act as catalysts for economic growth.
The Zanmi Pye Bwa cookstove, developed by Sebastian Africano and International Lifeline Fund (ILF), will be used in Haiti.
Sebastian’s project is based on TWP’s work in Haiti, where they have established that poor urban families spend between 40% – 60% of their $1/day (USD) income on cooking fuel and are consuming biomass resources at a rate much faster than they are replacing them. After 12 years of developing and disseminating locally appropriate cookstoves in the region, TWP has built the experience to balance fuel savings, durability, scalability, and value in a stove design for Haiti. Simple modifications to a popular, commercially available cookstove, when produced at scale in Port-au-Prince, will provide Haitians with a local solution that performs on par with expensive imported cookstoves, but at 30% – 50% of the cost.
The Global Social Benefit Incubator empowers socially-minded entrepreneurs to build sustainable, scalable organizations and to solve problems for people living in poverty around the world. This experiential skill-building program combines online and in-residence exercises with training and mentoring from academic leaders and Silicon Valley visionaries over an intensive 8-month period. This year, the in-residence program will take place on Santa Clara’s campus August 7-19, culminating with a business plan presentation on August 18, 2011.
Notes from the Field from Claudia Menendez, TWP’s International Program Coordinator:
April 4th, 2011: La Cuchilla, Department of Chalatenango, El Salvador
Alicia (Peace Corps Volunteer) stands next to a stove beneficiary in La Cuchilla, El Salvador.
After a hot and bumpy 2.5 hour drive we reached the community of La Cuchilla (the blade), which refers to the steep mountain ridge it sits on. We’ve come to visit Alicia, a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) whose been living there for over a year and half. Alicia is a prime example of what a PCV’s contribution to community can be as she tells us about the many environmental projects, women’s economic activities, and Justa cookstoves she’s built in La Cuchilla.
The El Salvador TWP team (Arboles y Agua para El Pueblo), Alicia and one other PCV from a nearby community, helped train a father and son team as the community stove builders. Arboles supplied the griddles and combustion chambers and supervised the stove building, while Alicia raised additional money through the Partnership Fund, asking friends and families to donate to the project. Alicia was able to raise $2,000 and coordinated with the Mayor of La Laguna to provide transport for the cookstove building materials. The La Cuchilla community is made up of 80 families, 65 of them now cook daily on improved Justa cookstoves – an impressive accomplishment, especially after traveling the long and winding road up to this rural mountain community.
Making tortillas on a fuel-efficient cookstove. Helping people and the planet!
Alicia goes back to the US in August of this year. She says that the other families don’t want to be left stoveless and are urging her to help them as they organize amongst themselves to collect materials little by little. Alicia says that building these 65 Justa cookstoves wasn’t an easy task, so building another 15 clean cookstoves should be a little easier although she awaits a challenge.
The Facts and Background:
Currently, El Salvador is the second most deforested country in Latin America (after Haiti). Today, most deforestation in El Salvador results from the country’s high population that relies heavily on the collection of fuelwood for meeting cooking needs. Aside from the horrible environmental degradation that occurs from cooking over open fires, there are also major health issues surrounding this practice. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 2 million people, mostly women and children, die each year from indoor air pollution. A simple, appropriate technology such as a fuel-efficient cookstove will reduce each families fuelwood consumption by up to 70% while, at the same time, reducing indoor air pollution by up to 80%; a sustainable solution that is good for both people and the planet.
Click here to learn more about TWP’s Fuel-Efficient Cookstove Program.
CO2 Bambu, a Nicaragua-based for-profit enterprise, designs, manufactures and field assembles pre-fabricated ecological structures for shelters, homes and community buildings. Trees, Water & People (TWP) and CO2 Bambu are now collaborating on reforestation and fuel-efficient cookstove projects. This partnership blends CO2 Bambu’s triple bottom-line approach (social impact, environmental improvement, and financial stability) with TWP’s mission to help communities sustainably manage the precious natural resources that their long-term well-being depends on.
A CO2 Bambu tree nursery in Nicaragua houses thousands of seedlings.
In La Rosita, Nicaragua, a tree nursery is now up and CO2 Bambu is looking to plant trees in river communities that utilize available flood plain land alongside the natural groves existing on the riverbanks. Seed collecting activities to augment the existing 3,000 plant nursery will take place between April and June of this year. Planting the seedlings in the field will begin in May and go through July as weather permits.
CO2 Bambu offers eco-solutions for construction and low-cost housing.
Co2 Bambu and TWP are also collaborating to provide 18 “Emelda” fuel-efficient cookstoves to the community of El Cocal where CO2 Bambu has built bamboo houses that need efficient wood cooking stoves. The project is in the works with PROLEÑA/TWP in Managua to provide training, stove parts and a field supervisor. The building of these cookstoves will begin in June 2011.
Families can benefit greatly from clean cookstoves, which reduce deforestation, fuelwood costs, and indoor air pollution.
We are really excited to be working with such a progressive company and look forward to continuing this partnership well into the future!
For more information on CO2 Bambu please visit their website: http://co2bambu.com
In partnership with Rodelle Vanilla, Trees, Water & People is working to provide Ugandan vanilla farmers with clean cookstoves. These stoves will improve families’ lives by decreasing indoor air pollution, deforestation and fuelwood costs.
While in Uganda, Sebastian held cookstove focus groups in the local villages to determine the preferences and needs of women who will be receiving clean cookstoves. Information gathered from these focus groups helps in design and implementation of a successful cookstove program.
About 75% of families in Uganda cook over open wood fires and cannot afford electric or gas stoves or access alternative fuel sources. These open wood fires create serious problems including deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. In an effort to alleviate these issues Rodelle and Trees, Water, & People will provide fuel-efficient cookstoves made from sustainable materials. This new project will work with the local farmers and people of Uganda to lay the groundwork for a better future. In creating a sustainable system, Rodelle Vanilla hopes to also create an industry that uplifts the Ugandan economy, all while changing lives.
Enjoy these pictures from Sebastian Africano’s (TWP Deputy International Director) recent trip!
A participant on the 2010 EcoTour helps plants trees in a local community.
Join Trees, Water & People for a service learning and cultural work tour to beautiful Honduras. From August 6th-17th, we will be taking participants to the communities where we work, helping to plant trees and build clean cookstoves. In addition, guests will visit the Mayan Ruins at Copan. This is a great opportunity to practice your Spanish, build your resume, and connect with local communities. The trip is designed so that each participant offsets their entire travel CO2 footprint through the reforestation and cookstove projects completed during the trip!
Sebastian Africano (left), TWP's Deputy International Director, leads a fuel-efficient cookstove focus group with Ugandan women in the Bugonia district.
Stuart Conway stands in a Guatemalan tree nursery that he helped to start during his Peace Corps service.
Stuart Conway, TWP’s Co-founder, shares his Peace Corps experience in Guatemala and how it inspired him to start Trees, Water & People in 1998.
From Colorado Public Radio:
“This month the Peace Corps marks its 50th anniversary. We hear from three Coloradans who say it changed their lives. University of Colorado journalism graduate Josh Boissevain currently volunteers in Moldova. Former state Democratic party chair Pat Waak served in Brazil from 1966 to 1968. Stuart Conway volunteered in Guatemala from 1984 to 1987. He runs the Fort Collins-based non-profit Trees, Water and People. They talk with Colorado Public Radio’s Sadie Babits.”
Sustainable Development, Sustainable Livelihoods 
