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Wilfred and Marie Pimentel are 80 years old but travel regularly to teach solar cooking in Rwanda, Mexico, Turkey, and Uganda among other countries.
In Rwanda they have a partner in Cally Alles, the director of Sorwathe Tea Factory. Cally has organized the people into local associations and hosts trainings at the factory. Cooking with the sun is simple but people need convincing. Carboard and aluminum? Just a few hours to cook beans? No stirring and no burning? It's useless to tell a starving man to grow corn and "Don't cut the trees" won't do a thing for the environment when there's no alternative. Solar cooking is the solution in Central Africa where there's plenty of sun and little firewood. But there's another benefit.
In the countryside there are few villages. People live in scattered clay houses miles apart. Solar cooking associations give them a reason to get together. In fact, they were so inspired by Cally's work on their behalf that they wrote a song for him and performed it when we arrived.
Wilfred Pimentel is involved with Rotary Club projects in Armenia, Mexico, Rwanda, Turkey, and Uganda among other countries.
News and Recent Developments
- September 2007: Report on Oaxaca, Mexico project
- August 2007: Green and hot: Solar cooking a delicious science - The Fresno Bee
- January 2007: Rotary Club gives solar cookers to Rwandan poor - The Fresno Bee
- August 2006: Longtime solar cooking advocate and trainer Wilfred Pimentel, along with Ken Goyer and Cynthia Wee, led a two-day integrated cooking workshop in Pambak, Vanadzor, Turkey. They taught three technologies: solar cookers, fuel-efficient stoves and heat-retention cookers. With access to these complementary technologies, food can be cooked regardless of time of day and season, and with a maximum of overall fuel savings. The group demonstrated both panel-type and parabolic-type solar cookers, though the region’s altitude and climate limit the amount of solar cooking that can be done with simple solar cookers. Seventeen people from a number of Armenian villages attended the workshop, held at the Peace Corps training center. Each participant received a CooKit and educational literature. They plan to return to their villages and begin teaching others about integrated cooking.