Solar Cooking
Register
Line 50: Line 50:
 
|Cooking with the sun
 
|Cooking with the sun
 
|}
 
|}
  +
  +
==Reports==
  +
  +
*'''March 2010:''' A 2009 report of work completed in the field by [[SCN]], of solar cooking and water pasteurization projects in various African countries. See: [[Media:Report_Clara_fieldvisit_ISSC_HoAREC_oct_23_Nov_14_2009.pdf|First Recording of ISSC Project Essentials and Proceedings]].
   
 
==External links==
 
==External links==

Revision as of 18:41, 24 March 2010

Although Solar Cooking Netherlands (SCN) started in Eritrea in 2004, since 2007 SCN is also active in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Somalia/Puntland and contributes with the projects to 5 of the 8 United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

The introduction of the CooKit has been the start of the SCN projects. The weather conditions seemed to be changing and gradually it became clear the CooKit has to be combined with other wood saving technologies, such as hay basket, heat-saving ovens, the more expensive solar box and the parabolic cooker for collective use. Together with water pasteurization we call this: Integrated Sustainable Solar Cooking (ISSC) [aka Integrated Cooking Method]. Solar Cooking NL is involved as well in the development of a high temperature cooker to bake injera (type of pancake).

In addition to the CooKit we also provide information about the use of a hay basket in which the cooking process can be finished. Although wood-saving stoves are not really part of solar cooking, we do provide information about them where relevant. The term Integrated Sustainable Solar Cooking (ISSC) refers to a combination of the three elements, CooKit, hay basket and wood-saving stove.

After more then 4 years of experience with our projects, Solar Cooking Netherlands adjusts its vision and points of departure. The most important points out of our report Integrated Solar cooking and Water Pasteurization a Conceptual Framework, introduced by the Solar Cooking Foundation Netherlands in December 2008 [Thomas et al]:

  • SCN will stimulate quality of life for poor African women and
  • In the same time contribute to environmental protection
  • SCN will create possibilities for local initiatives and entrepreneurship through introduction of solar cooking and other sustainable resources of energy for cooking, food cultivation and water purification for mother and child
  • With this all SCN give support to diminish the deforestation in this African countries.

SCN tries to reach the mentioned goals through:

  • to focus on the families with the lowest income
  • to develop strategies and resources of Integrated Sustainable Cooking, food processing and water purification through which they become available

SCN chairwoman Clara Thomas is currently organizing follow-up meetings with new solar cooks to collect feedback and discuss challenges and success. According to Ms. Thomas, evaluation and adaptation are essential. "In this way," she says, "a tradition of thousands of years of firewood cooking can be transformed to solar cooking with purely the sun as heat source." At least one woman in the Hagaz village seems already convinced. Of her experiences thus far, she says, "We prepare goat, rice, lentils and shiro in the CooKit and the taste is excellent!"

News and recent developments

  • March 2010: A comprehensive guide to solar cooking produced by Solar Cooking Foundation the Netherlands is now available. Included are sections on the use of the solar CooKit oven, a water pasteurization instrument(WAPI), a heat retention cooking basket, and also information on cooking for a six person household. See more information at: Integrated Sustainable Solar Cooking
  • 2007 - December 2009: In Uganda, the Solar Connect Association (SCA) initiates and implements successful solar cooking projects under leadership of Mr. Kawesa Mukasa, director of the SCA. He works together with his secretary in Kampala and his project team in Mbarara, in the south of Uganada. Solar Cooking Netherlands gives know how and financial support. The project in Mbarara [since 2007] aims to reach a cost-effective and preferably profitable operating account by the end of 2011 at the latest. To succeed it is vital to arrive at a cost-effective Resource and Production Centre in Mbarara where all Integrated Cooking products are made under own control or contracted out or bought on the local market. In this manner the local economy benefits as well. In 2008 more than 4000 CooKits are sold to 3800 families. This means 20,000 people consume solar-cooked food [at a average of 6 persons per household] and a yearly saving of roughly 9000 tons of firewood. Clara Thomas, chairman of SCN, introduced a direct selling method, though which groups of women in the villages are invited to information sessions, demonstrations, cooking lessons, meal sharing, and instruction in water pasteurization and the use of the Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI). This has been very successful. To enhance durability of the Cookits, the cardboard side of is coated, the borders are reinforced with adhesive tape and the sun reflecting aluminium sheets can now be glued perfectly smoothly with new techniques. In the Kampala region another project is in preparation. The meaning is to start this project as a for-profit enterprise.
  • September 2009: The outcome of the conference in March is a large scale Integrated Sustainable Solar Cooking project in 4 countries of the Horn of Africa. It is a three year plan in eight clusters: six in Ethiopia, one in Djibouti-Somalia and one in Sudan. Abiye Ashenafi [HoArec] will manage the project and SCN is cooperating partner, trainer and advisor. On this moment SCN’s Jacomine Immink and Clara Thomas have designed manuals for instructors and end-users. They contain many visual materials for illiterate people. In cooperation with Wietske Jongbloed [KOZON] , a comprehensive manual for the production of Cookits and Water pasteurization Indicators [WAPis] . The expectation is that the project really start in 2010. On that moment 10.000 Cookits and WAPis will be needed. The manuals will be translated into local languages.
  • March 2009: In Ethiopia the pilot project of  PISDA and SCN has been very successful. on this moment 1500 households use wood-saving cookers. At the monthly PISDA meetings, participating women motivate each other to sell CooKit bread and cakes at the local market.  A new production- and training centre has been opened and has been visited through representatives of Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre. The success of this project has inspired Janny Poley, the first secretary of the Embassy of the Netherlands. On her initiative a working conference with a department of the University of Addis Ababa has been organised on the 13 the and 14 the of March. 
  • 2007: This year Solar Cooking Netherland was active in Ethiopia, Uganda, Puntland/Somalia and Eritrea. There was a fruitful cooperation with lacal NGO's and women. There was a integrated approach, which included how the market works, how to fit in the local market,local production through women and to earn income for women. A save-and credit foundation has been esthablised directed on independence of all the people who are involved.
Gende Gorba Ethiopia 2007
  • November 2007: Solar Cooking Netherlands (SCN) has teamed up with Partnership for Integrated Sustainable Development Association (PISDA), a local non-governmental organization, to introduce solar cooking in four rural villages around Debre Zeit. PISDA has worked with female heads of households on a number of projects, such as tree planting, fuel-efficient wood stoves, and savings and credit associations. SCN’s Clara Thomas, along with PISDA’s Ato Guillilat, left early mornings on a two-wheeled horse wagon to visit the four rural villages. They first introduced solar cookers to village elders, and then spent a week training a group of solar cooking instructors. A year-long initial program was agreed upon to ensure continued follow up in the form of monthly collective solar cooking meetings to share experiences and advice. The project will likely expand next year. A local solar fabricator in Addis Ababa — Bereket Solar — will produce CooKit solar cookers by hand for the project. Towards the end of 2007 he will transfer his experience and knowledge to the women in rural areas so that they can make their own CooKits. Injera, a pancake-like bread, is a local staple that cannot be cooked with simple solar cookers. (It requires a 60-centimeter diameter pan and baking temperature of at least 220°C.) A research program is underway to find a solar method for baking injera. The present cooking culture does not permit introducing collective solar injera baking through a large bakery or otherwise. In the meantime, injera will continue to be baked three times per week on a fuel-efficient wood stove.
  • March, 2006: The Eritrea solar cooker project organized by the foundation Solar Cooking Netherlands continues to spread solar cooking knowledge in the Anseba region. As of January 2006, women from eight villages in the region, who previously purchased CooKits, attend monthly classes to further their skills and work through any issues. SCN hopes to extend these classes to 32 more villages in the region by the end of 2006. Local women are fabricating CooKits in the city of Keren. One hundred CooKits have been made, and more are in the works (pending re-supply of aluminum foil, which must be imported). According to SCN representative Janine Pater, local fabrication is important: “This is a major step forward in accomplishing the objective that now, and in the future, everyone in Anseba will be in a position to buy and/or make a CooKit without restriction.”
National Union of Eritrean Women 2005
  • November 2005: An Eritrea solar cooker project organized by the foundation Solar Cooking Eritrea Netherlands (SCEN) recently edged out 300 nominees to win an award for small-scale development projects. The award, presented by Dutch organizations the National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development (NCDO) and the Wild Geese Foundation, carries a monetary value of nearly $6,000. SCEN won based on project quality, thoroughness of the organization, efficient working methods, financial transparency, and the "for women, by women" aspect of the project. This year SCEN hopes to enable 4,500 families to solar cook with simple panel-type solar cookers based on Solar Cookers International's "CooKit." Thus far, 1,500 women have been trained, of which 700 have purchased CooKits for about $3.50 each. A new project coordinator, appointed by the National Union of Eritrean Women (NUEW), will organize future workshops and follow-up activities, and supervise a store where solar cookers are produced and sold. Project beneficiaries include low-income women in the Anseba region, and internally displaced persons in the Gash Barka zone. SCEN chairwoman Clara Thomas is currently organizing follow-up meetings with new solar cooks to collect feedback and discuss challenges and success. According to Ms. Thomas, evaluation and adaptation are essential. "In this way," she says, "a tradition of thousands of years of firewood cooking can be transformed to solar cooking with purely the sun as heat source." At least one woman in the Hagaz village seems already convinced. Of her experiences thus far, she says, "We prepare goat, rice, lentils and shiro in the CooKit and the taste is excellent!"

Audio and video

Local Fabrication of the CooKit in Eritrea
Cooking with the sun

Reports

External links

Contact

Clara Thomas
Solar Cooking Netherlands
Prof. van Reeslaan 11
1261 CS Blaricum
Netherlands

cookit.ned@wanadoo.nl
http://www.solarcookingeritrea.nl/index_eng.html, http://www.solarcooking.nl