Spring 2010: Join Kevin Adair for a trip across the Dominican Republic and to the Haitian border region and even into Haiti in March 2010. This is one of the most underserved areas of the world, and you can help bring solar cooking to the place where they need it the most. See deforestation first hand, and see the programs that are working now to replace harmful traditional charcoal cooking with the delicious food of the island cooked by the sun. More information and trip reservations available here.
February 25, 2010: With hundreds of thousands of Haitians homeless and living in tent camps, Sun Ovens International is continuing to place as many ovens in camps as possible. In late February, Paul Munsen traveled to Haiti and initiated distribution and training in seven tent camps. A committee was formed in each camp to determine who would receive the SUN OVENS® and look for ways to increase utilization. At each location many people who were not able to receive a SUN OVEN® pleaded for additional ovens. For additional information about Sun Ovens International's work in Haiti, click here.
Many of the tents are not much more than cardboard, scrap wood and metal and plastic tarps.
Camps are in open fields, schoolyards or anywhere space is available.
Previously trained staff from Programme Energie Solaire of the Free Methodist Inland Mission have been employed to conduct training sessions.
February 15, 2010:Jack Anderson reports: Paul Munsen is going to Port-au-Prince next week to establish some connections with the Free Methodists and others. There could be as many as 80 Sun Ovens there that didn't get crushed or damaged. Right now I am trying to connect with experienced trainers that might take jobs in any of the projects that surface. So it is a planning and capacity building phase that we are in. The energy, consciousness and cooperation among all of our solar colleagues is very inspiring and somewhat humbling in the face of such a huge catastrophe.
January 29, 2010: Sun Ovens International Update: Much progress has been made in the efforts to expand the use of Sun Ovens to Haiti. On January 28, 2010, 2 large Villager Sun Ovens, 160 Global Sun Ovens, 200 CooKits and 2,000 Water Pasteurization Indicators (WAPIs) have been shipped. In addition, arrangements are underway for 297 Haitian made Global Sun Ovens from the assembly plant in Lambert Haiti to be distributed to families left homeless by the recent earthquake. A shipment of parts to reopen the assembly plant is scheduled for February 8. A partnership has been initiated with Bright Hope International, an NGO which has been working in Haiti for more than 15 years. The majority of the Sun Ovens will be distributed to families living in a tent city which has sprung up at a garbage dump in Port au Prince. Bright Hope is currently providing food and medicine to 429 families at this location. Some of the ovens will also be used in tent cities in Pignon which is 79 miles north of Port-au-Prince and has doubled in size from 35,000 to 65,000 people in the past two weeks. I will be traveling to Haiti in early February to assist in the distribution and training. Bright Hope plans to send additional shipments to Haiti of food, medicine and Sun Ovens throughout the month of February. With hundreds of thousands of Haitians homeless and living in make shift tent camps the need for Sun Ovens is immense. Most of the tent camps and are using charcoal to cook. The smoke in these camps strains the health of women and children who are all ready malnourished and dehydrated. The cost of each Sun Oven with two pots and WAPIs is $199. Donations of any amount will be greatly appreciated. Donations should be made out to Friends of Haiti Organization, PO Box 222, Holland, OH 43528, USA (Please note the donation is for the Sun Oven project.)
January 2010:Kevin Adair discussed solar cookers and help for Haiti on Chicago Public Radio's Worldview program on Thursday, January 21. Listen on-demand here.
April 2008:Sun Ovens International is now assembling the Global Sun Oven in a factory in Haiti. A microfinance system is being used to make these ovens available to poor people who need them. An average family spends $2.30 (U.S.) per week to purchase charcoal. A Sun Oven can be used for 70% of their cooking and will save an average of $1.61 a week in charcoal expenditures. Weekly payments are set at $ .97 (60% of the savings); the remaining $ .64 per week creates an incentive to solar cook and takes money that literally was going up in smoke, distributing it through the local economy. Initially, the challenge of implementing this system was that women in Haiti live very much one day at a time and even though they saved a high percentage of their income by using a Sun Oven, they rarely had a long enough view to understand that they were saving money. To overcome this problem, cardboard solar panel cookers were introduced. Women received 3 days of training centered around the construction of a cardboard solar panel cooker, the principals and concepts of solar cooking, and the frailty of the Haitian environment. The training occurs over lunchtime, and the first two days, Haitian foods are cooked in Sun Ovens and served for lunch. On the third day, a solar potluck is held. Each student prepares food in their own cardboard cooker and shares it with fellow trainees. As part of the training, participants receive a log allowing them to document the use of their cardboard cooker and the amount of money they saved by not using charcoal. Participants who use their solar panel cooker on sunny days, for 90 days or longer, can use their log as a down payment on a Sun Oven. The Sun Ovens cook food much faster and can be used to cook the evening meals. After 90 days of documenting the use of the cardboard cooker, women have a much better understanding of the financial benefits of cooking with the sun and are eager to agree to a payment plan to obtain a Sun Oven.[1]
March 2008: For nearly a decade, Solar Oven Partners (SOP) has been providing Haitians with needed relief from wood-fueled cooking in the form of solar ovens. Volunteers in Brookings, South Dakota (USA) use donated or discounted raw materials to build numerous solar oven components, which are then boxed up and shipped to Haiti for final assembly. The wooden, box-style solar ovens cost about $60 to make with volunteer labor, and are based on one of Richard Wareham’s SunStove® designs. Each solar oven is packaged with three black cooking pots, a Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI), and a recipe booklet. Haitians pay a modest fee for the ovens, which they receive upon completion of a training course.
Five South Dakota State University football players volunteered to load the sea container with 1000 unassembled solar box cookers destined for Haiti.
Last July, a team of SOP volunteers visited Haiti for the 22nd time. They assembled 74 solar cookers and trained 80 families how to cook and pasteurize water with solar energy. Throughout the year, Haitians Montas and Raymonde Joseph conduct additional SOP trainings and sell solar ovens. They historically relied on the volunteer teams to come to Haiti and assemble cookers, which was not always sufficient to meet demand. In response, SOP has contracted with a young Haitian woman named Italis Jeanne Milcar to assure that enough ovens are available for the trainings. In just a few short months, Milcar had already assembled nearly 350 cookers and 100 WAPIs! Two years ago, SOP converted a 12.2-meter sea container for use as a storage facility for solar cookers in Haiti. They recently purchased a second container, and after 10 months of hard work, were able to fill it to capacity with components for an additional 1000 cookers, soon to be shipped to Haiti.
April 2007: The Kyoto Twist Solar Cooking Society (KTSCS) continues its efforts to raise funds for solar cooking projects that reduce poverty in sun-rich, fuel-poor countries while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. (The “twist” part of the name comes from the idea that those living in wealthier nations can change, or twist, their priorities and lifestyles to better share limited resources with those most in need.) KTSCS works with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that have solar cooker experience and a proven track record in countries where solar cookers are an appropriate technology. NGOs can request an application packet for consideration of funding. Project structure, recipient family selection parameters, training procedures, and follow-up services must be described in detail. To track the effectiveness of the projects, and to provide accountability to its donors, KTSCS will track the success of recipient families, their financial savings due to solar cooker use, and their greenhouse gas emission reductions. KTSCS funded its first pilot project in November 2005. The group that received funding -- Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team (AMURT) -- has worked in Haiti for over 15 years and has experience conducting solar cooker projects. “The Spirit of the Kyoto [Protocol] is international cooperation on what is now being called the biggest challenge mankind has ever faced ¬ massive and rapid climate change,” states the KTSCS Web site. “At an average cost of ten dollars per tonne, donating to KTSCS is an effective way to help make a difference. Cooking fires in the world today consume an estimated one billion cubic meters of wood or biomass annually, which produces an estimated one billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. Those are easy figures to remember and very significant in the mitigation of global warming.”
November 2006:Solar Oven Partners, based in Brookings, South Dakota (USA), recently shipped 500 unassembled solar box cookers to Haiti as part of its ongoing efforts there. Working with local volunteers, a United Methodist Volunteers in Mission team assembled 250 of the cookers and also helped to convert a donated 40-foot (12.2-meter) sea container into a solar cooker storage and assembly facility. Solar Oven Partners is working to train a local Haitian woman to lead future production efforts in Haiti. Contact:Solar Oven Partners, Brookings 1st United Methodist Church, 625 Fifth Street, Brookings, South Dakota 57006, USA. Tel: 605-692-3391, Web: www.gbgm-umc.org/solarovenshaiti
November 2006:Global Sun Ovens® — the durable box-type solar cookers developed by Sun Ovens International — are now being assembled in the Dominican Republic for use there and in Haiti, the Caribbean, and Central America. Kevin Adair, owner of Force of the Sun, says his company offers the ovens for sale at a significant discount to nonprofit organizations. He predicts the company will distribute 50,000 solar cookers regionally in the next three years. Force of the Sun began full production of Global Sun Ovens® in May, and shipped its first cookers to Haiti in June. The factory was designed by solar cooking expert Jack Anderson and is located in the Higuey Zona Franca Ecological in Altagracia Province. Additional space is available for rent to other nonprofits and manufacturers of ecologically sensitive products. Adair believes that by networking with other groups in the Dominican Republic, he will be able to spread the solar cooking idea faster. The company offers training to nonprofits that will distribute solar cookers. Force of the Sun is seeking volunteers to teach solar cooking skills in Haiti. Contact:Kevin Adair, Force of the Sun, c/o Adair Performance CxA, Higuey Zona Franca #7, Higuey, Dominican Republic. E-mail: KevAdair@aol.com, Web: http://www.forceofthesun.com
A Haiti woman testing new add-on reflectors available for the Dakota SUNSTOVE(r) solar cooker
August 2006:Solar Oven Partners, based in Brookings, South Dakota (USA) has been active in Haiti for years, where it has distributed thousands of solar cookers. In a recent edition of their newsletter, Solar Oven Partners presented the results of a survey of 15 Haitian solar cooks. Asked how many days they would use their solar cookers during a 10-day sunny period, seven said every day, two said seven to eight days, and the remaining six would solar cook two to five of the ten days. Solar meals have included meat, macaroni, cake, rice, beans, fish, vegetables, bread, eggs, and cornbread. Eleven of the 15 surveyed said they had explained solar cookers to others who then became interested in acquiring their own. On average, families indicated that charcoal now lasts two to three times longer than it did before solar cooking. Solar Oven Partners plans to distribute 1,000 more solar cookers during 2006. Contact:Solar Oven Partners, Brookings 1st United Methodist Church, 625 Fifth Street, Brookings, South Dakota 57006, USA. Tel: 605-692-3391, Web: http://www.gbgm-umc.org/solarovenshaiti
July 2005:Communities in Partnership, a Canadian organization that promotes solar cooking in Haiti, has introduced a new twist — the "Kyoto Twist." Canada’s government is encouraging its citizens to fight global climate change by reducing individual emissions of greenhouse gasses by one ton per year. Solar cookers in developing countries that displace the use of firewood save an estimated one to two tons of greenhouse gasses per year. The Kyoto Twist — named for the world’s greenhouse gas reduction treaty — enables Canadians to buy a solar cooker for a family in Haiti. The Haitian family gets immediate relief from firewood scarcity, high fuel prices and smoky kitchens, while the Canadian chalks up at least a one-ton reduction in greenhouse gasses. Contact:Jack Anderson, Box 191, Lund, BC V0N2G0, Canada. E-mail: jackanderson@prcn.org
November 2003:Solar Oven Partners -- a joint effort of the United Methodist Church of the Dakotas, Rotary District 5610 and established Methodist development programs in Haiti -- promotes solar cooking in Haiti. Teams of volunteers travel to Haiti to build solar cookers and lead educational seminars. The most recent team of thirteen volunteers returned in August after successfully accomplishing their goals. These goals included offering a three-day solar cooking seminar in the village of Anous, constructing 100 solar cookers both for sale in Anous and for distribution in the coming months, and the presentation of an innovative puppet presentation for children called “Solar Oven Puppet Theater.” Volunteer Diane Rieken had this to say, “Observing the pride of ownership following the three-day solar cooking seminar -- with the latest group of trained solar cooks purchasing 27 of the 100 newly minted solar ovens -- was a truly amazing scene!”
As mentioned above in the discussion of Canada, early work in solar cooking was
done by a Canadian organization, Communities in Partnership, a charitable group
founded in 1984 in Powell River, British Columbia. Their work, in turn, was inspired by
a 1977 feasibility study in Haiti, accomplished to assess the suitability of the county from
a climatic/insolation perspective. This work of Dr. Tom Bowman, James Sharbar and
Joel Blatt focused on factors of weather in the different parts of Haiti. They measured
insolation in more than a dozen areas, some at different seasons of the year. Without
providing all of the detail of their research, the document's overall conclusion is that
good solar cooking conditions, generally speaking, exist in Haiti, with, as everywhere,
seasonal and some regional variations, probably enabling families to save at least half of
their fuel costs.
The original Canadian partnership was with a small community called Saint Marc,
but later the program expanded to a number of communities in Haiti. They began by
building solar cookers jointly with residents of Saint Marc, and were preparing to start an ambitious pilot project when a major coup interrupted normal life in Haiti (1991). In that
disturbed time, the Canadians decided to turn their efforts to a survey of all solar cooking
activity in the country. They had heard bits and pieces of other small projects but had no
overall picture of the situation. In the next months, they devised a questionnaire that was
sent to over 30 locations in the country where solar cooking had been tried or »
demonstrated. Thus, while the information is now dated, a picture does exist (even if
admittedly not complete) of what is a substantial portion at least of solar activity in the
country at the time.
The conclusions of this study proved to be difficult (or impossible?) to summarize
numerically, but excerpts from reportsreceived give the flavor of work in a wide range of
communities, allowing some generalizations to be made. Short reports are provided from
19 of the 30 communities surveyed. Key figures in solar promotion in this country
included the Brace Research Institute of McGill University, a number of religious
organizations, the Canadian Communities in Partnership group, a number of individuals,
and one enterprise promoting a particular cooking model.
Commonalities and differences are seen in the reports. A variety of cooker
designs are in use: the box cooker (the most common), a steam cooker, and parabolics, all
in a variety of materials, wood, cardboard, metal, two different approaches were seen,
one believing that uptake would be higher and longer lasting if people made their own
cookers, investing their own time and energy. Other disagreed and felt that efficiency,
perhaps more certain with a manufactured product, was more important than the
"ownership" conveyed by self-building. Strong and regular usage was fairly rare, despite
the extreme need. The various groups were not working together for the most part, thus
not maximizing their learning from one another's' experiences. Need was everywhere
great, but cost of the cookers was nearly prohibitive for many.
Two additional resources in Haiti in the early days of solar promotion are: the
solar cooking resource center, created in the Haitian-American Institute by librarian
Eleanor Snare and, in 1992, a first Haitian National Solar Cooking Conference held in
Port-au-Prince. In that same period, a number of Haitian solar cooks traveled to other
solar cooking conferences, regional and worldwide.
Since the early years, a range of sporadic attempts continues the good beginnings
of the earlier era. The country has however continued to experience political unrest,
always hampering any development efforts. Nonetheless, efforts at promotion have
continued. The Free Methodist Church of Haiti, located in the capital Port-au- Prince, has
worked diligently, despite personnel changes, at solar promotion. Over the years, they
have distributed over 1,000 solar cookers, primarily of the panel variety, the least
expensive version available today. To help with follow-up, they have formed committees
of solar cooks in several towns.
The Rotary Club of Brookings, South Dakota, U.S.A., along with other clubs in
its Rotary district, have joined Solar Oven Partners, a cooperative project with the United
Methodist Church. The collaboration began in 1998 and by December of 2002, the
project had distributed more than 300 ovens (on a subsidized basis) and trained 2,500
Haitians to use them. An on-site infrastructure is being organized, working with the
Methodist Church of Haiti. Using a basic philosophy of "empowering people through self
help", the Rotarians and Methodists are continuing the long tradition of "harvesting
sunlight" in this nation. Deforestation here is already at an extreme stage, hence need
continues to be great.
A long time advocate of solar cooking in Haiti, Jack Anderson (an early
Communities in Partnership leader), has tried a range of dissemination methods,
employing "animatrices" or extension workers initially, then re-conceptualizing them as
small-scale entrepreneurs. His knowledge of Haiti is extensive, but political events have
continued to make efforts very difficult. In the last project described below for Haiti, Jack
has played an important role in yet a different method of promoting solar cooking.
That most recent addition to the range of solar offerings in Haiti is structured differently
from its predecessors. In this instance, a business, Sun Oven International, has begun
operating in the country, using a very interesting distribution mechanism. As described
on the Sun Oven website (http://www.sunoven.org)> the plan includes a number of components.
The project selected 500 women in one area of Haiti for initial training in solar
cooking, using the cardboard panel cooker called the CooKit This device serves as a
teaching tool; participants are requested to keep records of their cooking attempts, results,
and fuel savings for a periodof three months. Those who prove to be regular users of the CooKit can turn in their logs, along with an account of the money they have saved, to
obtain a SunOven, sometimes thought of as the "Cadillac" of box cookers. Initially, Sun Oven International has established an assembly plant in Haiti, in which U.S.
manufactured components will be put together in country (and perhaps even for export?)
When demand justifies, a full scale manufacturing plant will be established that can serve
the needs of the Caribbean basin for this top of the line solar cooking model. (A similar
plan is in effect for Ethiopia) It is too soon to know how this will progress, but it is
clearly an interesting and unusual tactic for promotion - and one to be watched carefully.
This activity is at least partially supported by a loan from the Overseas Private
Investment Corporation (OPIC) and arrant from the U.S. Agency for International
Development. Sun Oven owner, Paul Munson, was recently honored in the office of the
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert (Munsen's congressman), with
the award of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Export Achievement Award for this
innovative work in Haiti.
Given the desperate situation of the forest situation in Haiti, combined with
favorable insolation in most of the country, the country will remain a prime possibility
for solar cooking promotion, particularly if or when the political climate improves.
Jack Anderson has confirmed that very little wood was used in the construction of buildings in Haiti which means that there isn’t much wood in the rubble to use for cooking after the earthquake. That must make the need for cooking fuel even more acute. Before the quake, more than 90% of all the energy used in Haiti was for cooking fires, mostly in the form of charcoal.
The most successful model we have found in Haiti is to have women go through training on how to make a CooKit. We found much greater success when the women made them due to the pride they took in making it themselves. The readymade CooKits are less expensive and much less hassle than bringing in cardboard, glue, and foil but we found the pride factor to be worth the additional cost and effort.
The training sessions where 3 hours a day for 3 days and included lunch. The first two days the lunches were cooked in Sun Ovens so the women could see how much faster the food cooked. The last day the food is cooked in the home made CooKit. Part of the training is to teach the women to keep a log on how often they used the Cookit, how much charcoal they saved and how much money they saved not buying charcoal. At the end of 90 days they turn in the log as a down payment on a Sun Oven and pay for the Sun Oven out of the charcoal savings. (See Microcredit.)
We have distributed approximately 400 Sun Ovens in Haiti using this system. In most counties we try not to start projects in areas where CooKits had been introduced in the past because we have found it much easier to start with Sun Ovens than to overcome negative ideas about CooKits. We have found that if the women do not pay something for the Sun Ovens they most likely will not use them beyond the time that the person who gave it to them is around. We have found the most important factors to be the percentage of household income spent for cooking fuel and how we get women who live one day at a time to understand how much money they can save by not buying charcoal.
