StoveTeam Blog

March 7, 2012

During the spring of 2010 members of Club Rotario de Medio Dia in San Miguel de Allende began to research the need to assist families in surrounding rural communities with an alternative to open fire cooking. It was very apparent that there were substantial respiratory problems and burn risks for the families from this form of cooking as well as serious ongoing ecological concerns relating to the deforestation issue in obtaining the necessary fuel for the open fires. 

Well the response was very positive. It was clear that an economical alternative, such as a small stove, was certainly much needed and desired. 

One of our Rotary Club members determined through other Rotary Club websites that a very fine organization called Stove Team International based in Oregon, USA had been working with many North American Rotary Clubs in introducing the Ecocina Stove, designed by them, throughout various Latin American countries. After communicating with several Rotary Clubs involved with stove projects and researching the stove, we contacted Stove Team International to begin working to bring the Ecocina Stove to Mexico. 

So, from determining a need and with great desire to help we were on our way! 

Stove Team International recommended using a tried and true “factory model” to ensure that good quality stoves were produced in San Miguel at a fair price. They determined in other countries that a successful small stove building business was essential to ensure sustainability and continued production of stoves. This entailed locating a qualified metal worker and assisting him in setting up a stove factory to build and distribute stoves. Our Rotary Club was very fortunate to have worked closely on many cistern projects with Senor Eric Ramirez and were delighted when he agreed to work with Rotary on the Ecocina Stove project. 

Eric and his family operate a small Taller which does good metal work and his location was ideal for obtaining the necessary materials and supplies for stove making and for distribution of the stoves. Since June of this year we have been working closely with Eric in setting up his new factory. His workshop was extended, specialised equipment was purchased, materials were acquired and training of Eric and his employees was completed with the help of Stove Team International. 

Eric and his team became very comfortable with the stove building and so it was time to demonstrate the stoves to the families in surrounding communities. At this time we have held several community demonstrations attended on each occasion by some 45 people. The demonstrations are led by a fine young man, Saul Juarez, who has a passion for serving rural communities. The Ecocina Stoves have been very well received and the price we established, of Pesos$500, has been readily accepted. 

To this point in time the factory has made and sold 50 Ecocina Stoves with many additional orders on hand. Very fine indeed considering Eric and his team have been operating for just about 60 days. 

So the Ecocina Stove is in Mexico, with the first stove factory in Mexico being established here in San Miguel de Allende. Our Rotary Club will work together with Eric and his family over the next 9-12 months. Following which Eric will have in place a fine small stove producing business providing a much needed economical product. He will have created employment for several employees and likely will have changed the future for his family. 

Most importantly with Stove Team International’s guidance and Rotary’s assistance he will have provided Ecocina Stoves to thousands of families in rural communities. 

This truly is just the beginning for these great little stoves in Mexico. We have had enquiries and orders from many cities throughout Mexico, including Guadalajara, Veracruz, Colima, and Oaxaca. 

We will continue to help Eric develop his business over the months ahead and will post information and other photographs from time to time.

-John Doherty, Member Club Rotario de Medio Dia, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Things here have been really, really hectic, but quite productive.

We arrived a day after Gustavo and a few days after my neighbor, Stephanie Wood, who is operating a six week educational institute for teachers. We have all been staying in the same hotel, so it's really been fun. Stephanie helped connect us with her assistant whose name is Bertha. Bertha is AMAZING! Before we arrived she helped Gustavo find wood, a cook, masa, etc., etc. as well as commandeering the hotel staff to help Gustavo repair the one stove that was broken. It looked as if the people who transported it dropped in soundly on the side cracking not only the bottom of the stove, the base of the rim, but the entire inside. After Bertha found a kilo of cement, tiles and pumice, Alfredo from the hotel helped Gustavo do the repair.

Our new favorite cook did two demonstrations in two days and although they were not heavily attended, but they were attended by those who counted. Lorena Harp from the Harp Foundation spent a good two hours there and made the arrangements with the organic market for our presence. The local cooks at the market were impressed with the stove, and various people stopped by who were very curious and wanted to buy stoves right away. One man told us we were starting the next Mexican revolution by bringing the Ecocina to this area of such great need. The Rotarians from the Bicentenario club came in two batches. They are definitely on-board with the project and even showed us the future factory site. The paperwork for two grants is now signed so we will be on our way.

We had a major problem as Gustavo as developed a severe pain in his chest, so Gerry had to take him first to the pharmacy and then to the hospital. We ended up having to buy him an expensive ticket just to return to San Salvador so he wouldn't have to take the bus from Tapachula which would have been a five hour bus ride.

Making arrangements took FOREVER (of course, AeroMexico is closed on Sundays....and you can't buy a ticket or make any arrangements at the airport!), but after everything was done, we took the bus 2 1/2 hours to Tlaxiaco with Bertha. We hadn't heard from Roberto, but we decided to chance it and just tell him we were coming. He met us at the Suburban (actually, we took a van - they call all vans Suburban's here), and we had intense financial meetings from the time we arrived until 10pm. We overnighted in the local hotel, met again for breakfast, and continued working until about 1pm yesterday. We saw four potential factory sites, met with a local welder, talked to two young potential factory workers, met the President of the Municipality of Tlaxiaco, and Roberto's family.

Bertha and Roberto had discussions about salaries and he agreed to hire her. She is extremely competent and wants the job, and she will be able to keep things in order while he makes all of the connections for selling stoves. He plans to hire his father, whom everyone says is great, to run the factory.

So, to end this, we returned with Bertha whom we like a lot. Stephanie, Bob, Ron Spores and I went to lunch (3:30 is lunch time here), and Gerry collapsed in his room. Gerry recovered a bit later and we all met again in Stephanie and Bob's room for guacamole and chips.

Life is good!

Nancy

From Barbara Lee and  John Costello (STI board member)

Today we visited the Ecocina factory in beautiful, historic and HOT Leon, Niaragua. Touring the site with factory owner Juan Gutierrez and StoveTeam International Coordinators Beatriz and Fred Fiallos-Hamman, and meeting the crew of factory trabajadores was a real pleasure. The site is buzzing with activity.

Nicaragua, the birthplace of many poets and patriots, is in great need of products like the Ecocina to help ease huge problems of deforestation, poverty, and chronic illness. The March 2, 2011 issue of one of Nicaragua´s newspapers, La Prensa, has an excellent in-depth article on the country´s deforestation and fuel use. Read the Article Here  An unforgettable image from the article is the sight of trucks carrying wood from the countryside into Managua and carrying drinking water from Managua into the countryside to supply deforested areas that are now becoming dry.

From Barbara Lee and John Costello, STI Board member:

We've just spent a week in Honduras, and had the opportunity to visit Anibal Murcia's busy Ecocina factory in Copan Ruinas. By coincidence, a Rotary group from Florida toured the factory on the same day. The group received a great welcome from Anibal, the factory workers, and Don Udo, who was hosting them in his hotel. The next day, Anibal transported a number of stoves to a community in the mountains outside the town of Gracias, which is about three hours drive from Copan Ruinas.

This area has a significant indigenous population and is in many places lacking the most basic services. Stoves are a pressing need for lots of families. John and I had the good fortune to spend a few days around Gracias. The town is beautiful and has some very old buildings and neighborhoods similar to those in Antigua, Guatemala. The area has an active Peace Corp presence as well as other volunteers who, I think, will be interested in the Ecocina.

StoveTeam President Nancy Hughes, El Salvadoran Factory Owner, Gustavo Peña, and Administrative Assistant, Sanya Detweiler are all attending the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA) Forum this week in Lima, Peru.  

Nancy and two other partners testing a stove prototype

The Forum is held biennially to get together the 400 partners from 150 countries who are all involved in the cleaner cooking community.  Hosted by the U.S. EPA's PCIA, this year also in attendance is the Peruvian first lady as well as other prominent government officials.  So far the forum has discussed topics of national stove programs, highlighting Peru's program, stoves for humanitarian crisis, such as Haiti, and the latest developments in technologies, fuels and testing.

Participants will have the chance to visit local communities who are using improved stoves in the areas surrounding Lima tomorrow and StoveTeam president Nancy Hughes will speak about manufacturing strategies on Friday.  The forum will conclude Saturday with sessions on carbon credits and their application for stove projects.

Winter brings fiery killer into Afghan homes

KABUL | Thu Jan 13, 2011 3:16am EST

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan Khan Mohammad's once long henna-stained beard is burned up to his chin and his face is swollen and raw after a gas lamp exploded because it was placed too close to the family's wood-burning stove.

As temperatures drop well below freezing during the country's harsh winter, bombs and bullets from a near-decade long war against a Taliban-led insurgency are not the only threat -- just trying to light a home and stay warm can be deadly.

"We were using gas for a lamp and cooking food on the bukhari (stove) and the gas bottle was too close and got too hot," Mohammad said of the explosion, which also hurt his 11-year old son. They were being treated at Ahmed Shah Baba hospital in eastern Kabul.

But aside from the threat of burns, the main problem posed by heating and cooking is the smoke, which the World Health Organization said kills 54,000 Afghans a year. Most of those killed are children under five, it said.

The WHO has also ranked the problem as one of the worst health risks facing the poor. Burning solid fuels inside is also a large problem for other regional countries like Pakistan, China, and India.

More than 95 percent of Afghanistan's 30 million people burn solid fuels, such as wood and coal, in their homes, said the World Health Organization, making it one of the top 10 countries worst-affected by indoor pollution.

By contrast, 2,412 civilians were killed by conflict-related violence and 3,803 wounded in the first ten months of 2010, said the United Nations, the most violent year since late 2001 when U.S.-backed Afghan forces ousted the Taliban.

Afghan families typically use a wood-burning bukhari, a drum-shaped stove made of thin metal, or a sandali, a pit of burning coal under a small table covered by a heavy blanket, which people put their feet under to keep warm.

The smoke can lead to childhood pneumonia, lung cancer, bronchitis and cardiovascular disease, while also contributing to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions.

Indoor pollution mainly affects women and children because they spend the most time at home, said Afghanistan's acting Minister of Public Health Dr Suraya Dalil.

"Indoor pollution is one of the areas that threatens the survival of inhabitants," she said. "We're working ... to advocate for measures that would reduce indoor pollution including things like provision of electricity, that increases the safety as well as reduces the pollution in the house."

Afghanistan's infrastructure has been shattered by three decades of conflict and even electricity in the country's capital Kabul is unreliable. A near-decade long war makes security a top priority even as authorities try to rebuild the aid-reliant economy.

INDOOR SMOKE KILLS NEARLY TWO MILLION A YEAR

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, where children make up half the population. A quarter of children die before age five and the average life expectancy is 44 years.

Dr Bashir Noormal, director general of the Afghan Public Health Institute, said smoke from heating and cooking in Afghan homes "causes burns, carbon monoxide poisoning, respiratory illnesses and diseases and deaths.

"Inhalation of coal, wood and straw has been related to lung cancer and cancers of the head and neck," he added. "Chronic exposure to wood smoke also significantly increases the risk of cervical cancer in Human Papilloma Virus infected women."

The Human Papilloma Virus causes cervical cancer. But, in a country devastated by war, Noormal said there was no data on how many cancer cases could have been caused by indoor pollution.

Traditional cookstoves and open fires are the primary means of cooking and heating for nearly three billion people, according to the U.N. Foundation's Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.

Exposure to the smoke kills nearly two million people a year globally and sickens millions more, said the alliance, which is working to help produce clean cookstoves and aims to have 100 million homes using clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020.

In September the United States committed $50 million over five years to the alliance.

Honorita Bernasor, a Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) emergency doctor at Kabul's Ahmed Shah Baba hospital, said winter in Afghanistan brought cases of burns and carbon monoxide poisoning. In December, the hospital treated nearly 100 cases of burns caused by heating or cooking.

"We will be expecting more cases when the temperature goes lower," she said. "Bukharis are normally in the middle of the room and the children run around and put their hands everywhere ... We see a lot of carbon monoxide poisoning as well."

Qudratullah Nasrat, an emergency room doctor at the same hospital, said some of the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning such as headaches and dizziness were well known to Afghans.

StoveTeam featured in the Women's Rights in a Global World blog put out by the UO Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS).  Check out the blog post, written by StoveTeam Advisory Board member, Susie Hanner: Link to Blog

A Major Provider of Jobs and Economic Investment in El Salvador, HanesBrands also is Partnering with the U.S. Agency for International Development and Glasswing International on Education Programs to Serve At-Risk Youth

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)—HanesBrands Inc. today announced that is has renovated an ambulance, distributed 100 eco-stoves and is funding education programs for at-risk youths as part of continued efforts to improve the quality of life in several neighborhoods and communities in El Salvador.

“Improving access to health care, cleaner cooking technologies and education will better the lives HanesBrands’ employees, their families and the communities where they live.”

The ambulance, stove and education projects will benefit more than 25,000 people living in communities near San Juan Opico, about 20 miles northwest of the capital of San Salvador. HanesBrands, which has operated in El Salvador for nearly 20 years, has six apparel manufacturing and sewing plants providing more than 9,000 jobs in the country, including several facilities near San Juan Opico.

“Our employees identified health care and education as two key areas where our company can make a difference,” said Chris Fox, vice president of corporate social responsibility, HanesBrands Inc. “These new initiatives are a demonstration of our commitment to making a positive impact where our employees live and work.”

Eco-Stove Project

HanesBrands bought 100 eco-stoves for $5,000 and employees went into the neighborhood of La Argentina in San Juan Opico to deliver them to residents in need of the cleaner, more efficient wood-burning stoves for cooking. The stoves – called "Ecocinas" in Spanish – are made locally in El Salvador and are significantly more energy efficient and significantly reduce smoke and carbon emissions.

“HanesBrands’ support of the community is important because they understand the needs of our families,” said Guadalupe Avalos, a resident of La Argentina who received an Ecocina stove. “These stoves will not only save us money on firewood, but will also help us live healthier. We are very grateful to HanesBrands for their support.”

Many rural Salvadorans rely on wood-burning stoves to cook meals inside their homes, which often do not have sufficient ventilation. As a result, they suffer from a high occurrence of respiratory diseases due to constant inhalation of smoke. The Ecocinas use 60 percent less wood and emit 90 percent less smoke than traditional wood-burning stoves. The use of the donated stoves is expected to reduce the rate of respiratory illnesses, as well as the number of trees cut down for fuel.

HanesBrands Inc.

HanesBrands Inc. is a leading marketer of everyday basic apparel under some of the world’s strongest apparel brands, including Hanes, Champion, Playtex, Bali, JMS/Just My Size, barely there, Wonderbra and Gear For Sports. The company sells T-shirts, bras, panties, men’s underwear, children’s underwear, socks, hosiery, casualwear and activewear produced in the company’s low-cost global supply chain.

HanesBrands has approximately 50,000 employees in more than 25 countries and takes pride in its strong reputation for ethical business practices. More information about the company and its corporate social responsibility initiatives, including environmental, social compliance and community improvement achievements, may be found on the Hanesbrands Internet website at www.hanesbrands.com. Hanesbrands is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2010 Energy Star Partner of the Year and ranks No. 91 on Newsweek magazine’s Top 500 greenest U.S. company rankings.

Meeting the Ecocina suring our November eye screening clinic in San Juan Opico, we had a demonstration of the Ecocina, a beautifully engineered concrete stove with three important virtues: it uses less than half of the wood needed by a regular wood stove, it is so efficient that it produces no smoke after the first few minutes, and the outside stays cool, so children aren't burned if they touch it.

The Ecocina is the work of Stove Team, International, an organization based in Eugene, Oregon - the location of PeaceHealth's Riverbend and University District Hospitals. Nancy Hughes, the founder, and team members have started factories in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

We were delighted to connect with Gustavo Peña, the manager of the El Salvador factory. Unable to come himself, he sent his son Gustavo, Jr. - Dr. Peña - who not only brought the stove and his fiancee, who demonstrated it, but gave a day of free dental exams and cleanings to over 30 young Opicans.

We acquired the sample stove, and it stayed in the parish hall for a while… The parish cook tried it out and liked it a lot - and so now a bunch of orders are going to the Ecocina plant from San Juan Opico. The sample went to the Rodriguez family on Friday. We're hoping it will contribute to good health for the children - and good meals for the family.