Association des Femmes Ingénieurs du Mali

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AFIMA instructors use gesture language to convey solar cooking concepts to deaf and hard-of-hearing women of AMAFH.

Association des Femmes Ingénieurs du Mali (AFIMA) also known as the Association of Women Engineers of Mali works with the KoZon Foundation in promoting solar cooking.

[edit] News and recent developments

Mariam Toure proudly serves samples of her solar meal.

March 2008: The Association of Handicapped Women of Mali (AMAFH) continues to arrange solar cooker training for its members in Bamako, with organizational support from the Association of Women Engineers (AFIMA) and financial assistance from Dutch KoZon Foundation. In 2006, AMAFH taught 60 deaf and hard-of-hearing women how to use a CooKit solar cooker during a 2-day training. In a follow-up visit months later, at a school for deaf children, the women cooked a delicious solar feast. Fifty women with leprosy were trained in early 2007. With the loss of nerve sensation caused by the disease, traditional open fire cooking can be dangerous for these women because they can unknowingly get burned. Another benefit is that the women have increased status in the community because they now know something that most don’t: how to cook food with the sun. They said that with the CooKit they can prepare special recipes for their husbands, prepare groundnuts for their children, and even sell solar-cooked meat in the market. One remarkable woman, Mariam Toure, has lost all but one finger. Yet, she already has plans to lead a training early this year for another group of women with the disease. AMAFH also led a 2-day solar cooking workshop for 20 mentally disabled women in late 2007, which was well received. Source: Wietske Jongbloed