Solar Cookers International

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Kenyan women show off the food that they have cooked without the use of firewood.
Kenyan women show off the food that they have cooked without the use of firewood.

Solar Cookers International (SCI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with headquarters in Sacramento, California, USA, and an office in Nairobi, Kenya. Since its founding in 1987 SCI has spread solar cooking skills and technologies where they are needed most. Over 30,000 families have benefited directly from SCI’s field projects and countless others have used SCI’s resources to learn how to make and use solar cookers and teach others to do the same. SCI depends on the support of its members and donors to continue with its vital mission. In August 2006, SCI was the winner of the World Renewable Energy Award.

Contents


[edit] The services that Solar Cookers International provides

Solar Cookers International (SCI) promotes solar cooking and solar water pasteurization worldwide, especially in developing countries where solar cookers can literally save lives. SCI is paving the way for mass solar cooker acceptance and use through promotion of the CooKit, field projects in communities and refugee camps, development and dissemination of education resources, and advocacy with the United Nations and other governmental and nongovernmental institutions.

Depending on need and climate, there are many types, sizes and designs of appropriate solar cookers. SCI’s simple and effective CooKit is a low-cost cooker that is especially well suited for the developing world since it is made of cardboard and foil, which are readily available materials in most communities. The CooKit is shaped to reflect maximum sunlight onto a black cooking pot that converts sunlight into thermal (heat) energy. A heat-resistant bag (or similar device) surrounds the pot, acting like a greenhouse by allowing sunlight to hit the pot and preventing heat from escaping.

Each group of items costs 30 Kenya Shillings as does the pile of charcoal shown. By using a CooKit or other solar cooker, people can buy food instead of fuel.
Each group of items costs 30 Kenya Shillings as does the pile of charcoal shown. By using a CooKit or other solar cooker, people can buy food instead of fuel.

Solar cooking is beneficial to anyone who lives where there is an abundance of sunshine, and especially where traditional cooking fuels are progressively being depleted. Women in developing countries often walk many miles to collect wood to cook with, or must purchase cooking fuel with meager incomes and/or trade food or goods for cooking fuels. In addition to this physical and monetary stress, women and children who habitually cook inside are subject to severe upper respiratory problems caused by indoor air pollution from smoky fires. Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that women and girls living in refugee camps risk injury, rape and even death when forced to forage for wood outside the compound.

In many cases, fuel wood is too scarce to use to boil water as well as cook with, so people drink water from contaminated water sources, causing millions to get sick and/or die every year from preventable waterborne diseases. An estimated 1.5 billion cases of diarrhea occur each year, resulting in the death of nearly 2 million children. Solar cookers provide a practical method of heating water to the point of pasteurization, requiring only time and the sun to kill the most common waterborne pathogens and making water safe to drink.

As you might imagine, we are often asked "but what about when there's no sun?" SCI promotes the Integrated Cooking Method, whereby solar cookers are used in conjunction with fuel-efficient stoves & heat retention devices (sometimes called hay baskets) to cook food and pasteurize water with a minimum of fuel. By using the sun when possible, and supplementing with fuel-efficient cooking technologies, fuel wood consumption and subsequent deforestation around the world can be drastically reduced.

Women in Kajido, Kenya stand with their CooKit solar cookers.
Women in Kajido, Kenya stand with their CooKit solar cookers.

In addition to the fundamental basics of solar cooking and water pasteurization that SCI has promoted for years, SCI has developed a revolutionary method of simple scientific water testing that requires no electricity or refrigeration. Most rural areas are unable to adequately test their water because the process of gathering samples and transporting them to a certified laboratory in an urban area is simply too expensive. SCI’s Portable Microbiology Laboratory (PML) contains laboratory materials small enough to fit in a Ziplock bag, and has already been adopted by the Kenyan Ministry of Health and Water Resources Management Authority. We are working closely with these government institutions to bring accurate and reliable water testing to rural areas that previously had no practical resources available with which to test their water sources.

SCI sponsors three websites:

  • The Solar Cooking Archive Wiki (the site you are now on)
This site allows the broader solar cooking community to edit and add information directly from a Web browser by simply clicking the "edit" tab at the top of any page.
This site keeps you up-to-date with the latest solar cooking news and contains a larger number of solar cooker plans.
This site contains detailed information about Solar Cookers International and its projects

If you are interested in starting a solar cooking and/or water pasteurization project, please see Promoting solar cooking. You can also connect with people and programs in your own country by consulting the International Directory of Solar Cooking Promoters or visiting our pages about solar cooking in each country. Basic information on solar cooking, frequently-asked questions and instructions on how to build various solar cooker models are also available. Large sections of the Solar Cooking Archive have been translated into French, Spanish, Catalan, and Portuguese, and translations of articles can be found in languages as varied as Farsi, Chinese, Vietnamese, German, Italian, Urdu, and Arabic. SCI has also recently created the Solar Cooking Archive Wikis in French and Spanish.

Also available via the Internet are several key booklets published by SCI to help solar cooking promoters succeed. Our plans booklet, “Solar Cookers: How to Make, Use and Enjoy,” provides step-by-step construction plans for panel-type and box-type solar cookers; our field guide, “Spreading Solar Cooking,” helps promoters plan solar cooking projects; and our trainer’s manual, “Teaching Solar Cooking,” helps solar cooking instructors stay on task and monitor their students’ progress. All three booklets are available for download on the Archive, or for sale — along with solar cookers, cookbooks and related supplies — inside the back cover of this publication and on SCI’s organizational Web site. Booklets are mailed free of charge to select individuals and groups in developing countries where Internet access is difficult.

SCI’s Solar Cooker Review is another tool aimed at helping independent solar cooking promoters everywhere. In it, promoters exchange stories about solar cooker technology and dissemination, and learn from the successes and challenges of others. Thanks to you, our members and donors, each Review is mailed free of charge to over 2,000 promoters and supporters outside the United States.

To hasten the global spread of solar cooking, SCI hosts regional and international solar cooking conferences, bringing promoters together to exchange strategies and explore collaborations. SCI recently spearheaded formation of the Solar Cookers International Association. As this association grows and its system of regional networks takes hold, promoters in many regions should find it easier to get regionally-specific information and guidance.

Last, but certainly not least, is SCI’s query response service. With custom responses to over 100 inquires each month, SCI has helped thousands of people answer important questions, find local experts, and access critical resources needed to successfully achieve their solar cooking goals.

If you would like to promote the work that SCI does locally and around the world, please consider becoming a member and submitting a donation on-line or to the address below. A majority of SCI's funding comes from individual donors and environmentally conscious people such as yourself. We will put your contribution to very good use by helping gain a better quality of life for people in communities much less fortunate than yours.

Only with your continued support can SCI meet the ever-expanding needs of the worldwide solar cooking community.

[edit] News and recent developments

  • June 2008: SCI was recently honored by the Center for African Peace and Conflict Resolution (CAPCR) at California State University Sacramento (CSUS) for bringing the benefits of solar cooking and water pasteurization to over 30,000 African families. Bob Metcalf, president of the SCI Board of Directors and professor of microbiology at CSUS accepted the award at the center’s 17th annual Africa Peace Awards dinner. Other honorees included Jeanette Ndhlovu, consul-general of South Africa; Pastor Daniel Gebreselassie, a prison reform advocate from Addis Abba, Ethiopia; and Faye Kennedy of the Sacramento-area Black Caucus/Center for Collaborative Planning. CACPR was established to provide conflict resolution and reconciliation services for agencies, governments, organizations, businesses communities and groups through training, education, research and intervention.
  • April 2008: World Bank audio interview with SCI's Margaret Owino
  • February 2008: SCI was contacted by two members of the Convoy of Hope, a U.S. based NGO in Nairobi. As a result of that visit, the following took place as reported by Margaret Owino and Faustine Odaba: Faustine and the Convoy of Hope members went to the Limuru Police Station which was the temporary home of six thousand refugees. The space is small and there was congestion everywhere. People in the camp were from the BATA shoe factory, and the tea farms and they belong mainly to the Luhyia and Luo communities. The camp was organized on the basis of area of origin, for example Luos from Siaya, from Kano, Luhyias from Kakamega, from Bungoma etc. There were many missionary groups working there and pastors ministering to camp residents as well. Food donations were available and accessible and group cooking took place, in huge cooking vessels using firewood by volunteer cooks. There was a great spirit of cooperation in the camp and leaders for food distribution, leaders of water, non food items (clothes) distribution etc. Faustine and the volunteers arrived with 25 CooKit sets at 10:30 A.M. and used six CooKits for rice, seven for cabbage, two with French beans and one with water. The demonstration according to Margaret was for the leaders and other interested people. All the foods cooked by 3 P.M. Only the French beans were not well done and everyone was shocked that foods can cook without using charcoal or firewood.

[edit] Resources

[edit] Newsletter: Solar Cooker Review

See also suNews, a newsletter published by SCI's East Africa office.

[edit] Communiqués

[edit] Project evaluations

[edit] Annual reports

[edit] Articles in the media

[edit] Audio and video

  • October 2007: Suncookers - A DVD showing the work of Solar Cookers International in Kenya

[edit] Becoming a member of Solar Cookers International

There are few important tangible benefits to being a member of Solar Cookers International. Most of our members join because of their philanthropic desire to support the work which SCI does. About the only tangible benefit to membership is receipt of our newsletter, the Solar Cooker Review. However, we provide free subscriptions to interested parties outside the United States.

There are two methods for becoming an official member of SCI. One method is to make a donation. Membership is considered valid throughout the calendar year in which the donation is made. Our standard suggested donation is US $50 per year, but any amount, larger or smaller, is sufficient. We can receive donations from outside the United States only under certain methods of payment: we can accept VISA and Mastercard credit card payments; we can accept checks written for US dollars on a US bank; we can accept International Money Orders and International Postal Money Orders if they are payable in US dollars. Such checks or money orders should be made out to "Solar Cookers International" or "SCI." Mail to:

Solar Cookers International
1919 21st Street, Suite 101
Sacramento, CA 95814
USA

You can also join or make a donation online

The second method was devised to meet the needs of solar cooking activists and their organizations located in countries outside the USA. It was developed because we understood that in many countries the ability to donate money, particularly in US dollars, to an organization outside one's country, is limited or restricted by a variety of factors. In this method, we request two things from organizations (or individuals) who are petitioning for membership. We request a letter in which the petitioner requests membership. Along with that letter, we request some materials from the organization that relate to its activity in the solar cooker field. Some examples of these types of materials are: studies on the need for or interest level in solar cooking in the region served by the organization requesting membership; educational materials about solar cooking produced by that organization, possibly in languages local to the region the organization serves; solar cookbooks appropriate to the languages and cuisine of the region served; reports on solar cooker dissemination activities by the organization requesting membership; reports on the results of these activities, particularly number of people or families who become users of solar cookers and their comments on the benefits of solar cooking, the foods they solar cook, problems they have had with solar cooking and solutions they have invented to solve those problems. Other materials relating to the solar cooking activities of the requesting organization can also be used. To be clear, we do not ask that a petitioner send ALL these types of information—simply a sample of documents, cookbooks, etc. that the petitioner has available.

[edit] Contact

Solar Cookers International
1919 21st St., Suite 101
Sacramento, CA 95811-6827 USA
Tel: +1 916-455-4499
Fax: +1 916-455-4498
info@solarcookers.org

Solar Cookers International East Africa Office
P.O. Box 51190-00200
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel/fax: 254-20-43-47144
mailto:sci@iconnect.co.ke

Join or make a donation

US Tax Exemption ID: 68-0153141

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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