At Trees, Water & People, we are truly indebted to the local women who make our projects in Central America and Haiti successful. Women in each community our work touches provide our staff and local partners with the guidance necessary for implementing successful, long-term solutions to the problems facing their communities. The feedback we receive informs our clean cookstove designs, mobilizes community members, and inspires change for a better future.
We hope you will take this time to think about how the women in your life are making this world a better place for all – and thank them!
Today, the TWP staff and people all around the world will come together to celebrate International Women’s Day. Make It Happen is the 2015 theme, encouraging effective action for advancing and recognizing women. We hope you will join us in supporting our community-based development projects that advance the rights of women in Central America, Haiti, and on tribal lands of the U.S.
Our conservation projects go beyond protecting the environment. We strive to improve the livelihoods and health of every family we work with, especially the women and children who are most affected by energy poverty and deadly indoor air pollution.
Today, make sure to take a moment to hug the important women in your life and let them know how much they mean to you!
Learn more about TWP’s projects and how they help mothers and children at www.treeswaterpeople.org.
Every year, on March 8, millions of people around the globe come together to celebrate the social, political and economic achievements of women while focusing the world’s attention on areas that still require further action. The first International Women’s Day was held in 1911, and continues to be an important day in promoting equality for all women.
Inspiring Change is the 2014 theme and “encourages advocacy for women’s advancement everywhere in every way”. It calls for challenging the status quo for women’s equality and vigilance inspiring positive change.
At Trees, Water & People, we empower women and inspire positive change by helping to fight energy poverty. Our clean cookstoves, solar lights, and composting latrines are some examples of the technologies we use to improve the lives of girls and women in Latin America.
These programs would not be successful without the leadership and hard work of local women. Throughout our program countries, these women provide us with the guidance necessary for implementing successful, long-term solutions to the problems facing their families and communities. Their feedback informs our cookstove designs, mobilizes community members and inspires change for a better future.
A woman bundles firewood that she just finished chopping in Tiquisate, Guatemala. The firewood will be used to cook the next couple days of meals for her family.
Around the world, 3 billion people still cook ever meal over an open fire. In Guatemala alone, more than 70% of the population is dependent on wood to cook every meal. And, gathering fuelwood is no easy task – a task that most often falls on the women and girls who cook for their families.
This International Women’s Day, we want to honor the billions of women and girls around the world who struggle each day with energy poverty. We hope for a future where every woman can safely prepare a meal for their family without having to worry about collecting fuelwood, breathing in toxic smoke, or having their young children burned. Cooking shouldn’t kill!
Learn more about how we are fighting energy poverty at our website.
Today is International Women’s Day, an important time for us to celebrate the powerful force that women play in every aspect of our lives; this is a day to celebrate women’s equality and achievements.
Much of the work we do at Trees, Water & People centers around making women and their children healthier. To do this work, we collaborate with women leaders in every country we work in. These women are leaders because they are never afraid to address difficult problems facing their communities. These women work together to provide the best quality of life for their families using the resources available. Whether we are working together to bring clean cookstoves to a community, planting fruit trees on a family farm, or building solar heating systems on a Native American Reservation, I can guarantee there is always a smart, hard-working, and courageous woman behind the scenes helping to lead the charge!
So, to all of the women in the world: Happy International Women’s Day! Let us all come together to celebrate today, and every other day, each and every woman that is special in our lives.
Read this great article from EcoWatch to learn more about “12 innovations that are helping women get access to credit, improve their incomes, feed their families, introduce sustainable crops to markets, and reduce rural poverty.”
Around the world, people are celebrating International Women’s Day! This is a wonderful opportunity for each of us to recognize the beautiful women in our lives and to tell them how their strength, love, and wisdom makes us better people. According to the official website, “International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some countries like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, IWD is a national holiday. The first IWD event was run in 1911 so 2011 sees the Global Centenary.”
Standing proud next to a new fuel-efficient cookstove in Nicaragua.
Trees, Water & People has long had a woman- centered approach by nature, as working with cookstoves connects you directly to the women in every home and community. TWP has diligently worked to help over 46,000 households replace smoky, open-fire stoves with clean, fuel-efficient cookstoves. This change allows women to lead healthier lives, increase their savings and time to confidently care and provide for their children and families, provide a clean and safe home environment free of smoke where women feel proud to cook their daily meals, and contribute to making their communities vibrant places to live.
Doña Justa next to the fuel-efficient stove model she helped to design and create. Thank you Doña Justa for your leadership and contribution to the clean cookstove movement!
Doña Justa opened up her home in 1998 to TWP to help and guide us in designing a stove that Honduran women would love; 12 years later the Justa stove model with rocket combustion chamber is still leading the cookstove movement in Central America!
TWP embraces all the women whose lives touch us on a daily basis. We are proud to stand side by side with strong women leaders and to help more and more women, children, and men enjoy healthy and fulfilling lives.
Happy International Women’s Day!
Without the involvement of women our cookstove projects would be difficult, if not impossible, to sustain.
Sustainable Development, Sustainable Livelihoods 