Solar Cooking
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*'''Spring 2008:''' [http://www.jewishworldwatch.org/refugeerelief/womenofiridimi.html The Women of Iridimi] - ''A film by Barbara Grover''
 
*'''Spring 2008:''' [http://www.jewishworldwatch.org/refugeerelief/womenofiridimi.html The Women of Iridimi] - ''A film by Barbara Grover''
 
[[Category:Chad]]
 
[[Category:Chad]]
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[[Category:Refugee camps]]

Revision as of 21:23, 24 May 2011

As of June 2008, work has begun spreading solar cooking to the Oure Cassoni Refugee Camp in Chad. Oure Cassoni houses 28,123 refugees. A manufacturing plant was built in the summer of 2008. As of July 2009 about 8,000 solar cookers are in use. A group of refugee women have been trained by the project to manufacture the cookers and twenty-five auxiliary trainers have taught the women to solar cook at a rate of 800 women per month. The women in the camp are completely trained and solar cooking as of July 2009.

In early 2005, solar cooking was introduced to Darfur refugees living in the Iridimi Refugee Camp in Chad by Dr. Derk Rijks of the KoZon Foundation. Jewish World Watch’s Solar Cooker Project (SCP) adopted this endeavor in 2006 and has expanded it to provide solar cookers and training to three refugee camps so far.

Replacement cookers are provided for the families, which are made up of 5-7 people per tent, often one woman as the head of household, with up to three of her own children and three orphans.

The area is devoid of vegetation; there is abundant sun and very little rainfall—between 3” and 5” (7.5 - 12.5 cm) yearly. The main food currently distributed is maize meal, a food the refugees commonly eat. It is sometimes accompanied by a maize-soya-meal mixture, if available. The pulse plants most frequently distributed are yellow and red lentils, white and red beans, and sometimes pigeon peas.

It requires cooking for about three hours, depending on the clarity of the sky. The heat from solar cookers is slow and gentle, so while the food stays longer in the pot, it doesn’t stick to the walls or need to be regularly stirred, which is an advantage over the potential to burn food with fire. Women can do other things while the food is cooking, without worrying about stirring. Additionally, there isn’t the lingering smell of smoke as there is with a fire—like women everywhere, these refugee women are conscious about their appearance, even in these very difficult conditions. Solar cookers are also able to be used to pasteurize drinking water, reducing incidence of water-borne diseases especially in children.

The SCP’s partners include Solar Cookers International, which provides technical assistance, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which manages the camps and coordinates NGO activities, and Tchad Solaire (“Chad Sun”), the NGO that runs the SCP on the ground in Chad.

Organizations providing financial support for this project have included: Netherlands Refugee Foundation, Jewish World Watch, as the North American Coordinator of the Project, the Darfur Assistance Project, the Dora Levit Family Fund, and the Hesed Fund. Logistical and communications support from the UNHCR and CARE is invaluable in continuing project operations.

Jewish World Watch is handling donations for this project and your support is needed!

News and recent developments

  • August 2009: New Jersery Coalition Responds to the Crisis in Darfur is a group which is currently raising money to provide a solar cooker to each family in the Oure Cassoni Refugee Camp. It has been demonstrated that once the need for women to leave refugee camps is reduced, the amount of violence committed against women and girls falls by over 80%. For more information about this project, click here.

The Benefits of Solar Cooking

  • Solar cooking helps reduce the need for frequent firewood collection outside the relative safety of the camp, reducing the risk of violence towards women and girls.
  • Two solar cookers can save one ton of wood each year.
  • There is no need to tend a fire so women are free to do other tasks while food is cooking.
  • The production of the solar cookers provides income-generating opportunities for female refugees.
  • Solar cooking, as part of an integrated cooking method, reduces the amount of wood necessary for cooking, helping to alleviate tensions between the refugees and locals, whose already slim wood supply was suddenly impacted by thousands of refugees.

What You Can Do

Help provide more refugee camps with solar cookers by raising AWARENESS and raising FUNDS. Make a donation. Just $30 supports one family by providing two solar cookers, training and two pot holders.

See also

Contact

Jewish World Watch

External Links