Solar Cookers for Refugees in Gaga, Chad

 

 

We need your help to get the effective and elegant technology of solar cooking to the desperate refugees in Camp Gaga, Chad -- to dramatically improve their lives and benefit the whole planet at the same time. Currently, like about half the world’s people, the refugees in Chad rely on wood (or charcoal or other biomass) for daily cooking -- which leads to respiratory diseases, environmental degradation, climate-changing emissions, economic hardship and daily danger and frustration for the families who gather the fuel.  

 

I am raising funds to enable Solar Household Energy (SHE) to purchase “HotPot” solar cookers, transport them to Chad and train the Sudanese refugees there how to use them. SHE is an award-winning non-profit organization that has already run a successful pilot program bringing the "HotPot" to Chad - and I want to help them expand to serve at least 80% of the camp's population.

 

The Problems - Local and Global

 

Inhalation of smoke emitted by cooking fires is equivalent to smoking about 2 packs of cigarettes a day, which causes many human health and development issues, while the fires themselves are a constant physical danger to those tending them. Daily collection of wood leads to deforestation and soil erosion, as well as loss of critical habitat and biodiversity. As the forests are destroyed, women and children, who are the main wood collectors, have to travel farther and farther, which puts them in vulnerable situations and takes up much of their day. They have less time to go to school or do other productive work that could help improve their economic situation or community standing. When fuel cannot be gathered, its high cost uses up a family’s scarce funds. Burning wood and other solid fuels also releases emissions of some of the most important contributors to global climate change: carbon dioxide, methane and other ozone-producing gases, as well as efficient sunlight-absorbing particles like black and brown carbon.

 

The Sudanese refugees at the Gaga Camp are at ground zero for all these problems -- and they need our help solving them!

 

The Solution is Right Above Us -- Cook with the Sun

 

Using solar cookers offers a practical, affordable and sustainable solution to the intractable and interrelated problems the Gaga Camp refugees face, as well as to issues that affect the whole planet. Truly, the solution is shining right down on us -- if we only put it to use.

 

• Inhaling smoke from and tending fires is no longer a major health and safety issue.

 

• Women and children do not have to spend hours traveling to dangerous areas for wood, or making and tending fires -- and can use that time productively, for education and business.

 

• Forests have time to regrow, maintain habitat and hold onto soils.

 

• Overall air quality is greatly improved and major contributions to global climate change are reduced.

 

• Refugee families can put their scarce resources, that might have gone to buying fuel, to much better use.

 

What is a solar cooker and how does it work?

 

A solar cooker is exactly what it sounds like: an object that uses the sun's energy to cook food. Whether a parabolic dish or a simple box cooker, solar cookers have a reflective surface that concentrates sun rays to one spot -- and enables almost any dish to be cooked using just the sun!  The “HotPot” we will send to Chad is so efficient and effective that it can boil and sterilize water in about 15-20 minutes.

 

After working as a volunteer with SHE for many years, I have become quite passionate about solar cooking. It seems such an obvious "no brainer" solution to so many problems, but many people do not yet understand the power that such a simple design can have.

 

SHE has already designed their own sturdy, portable solar cooker, the Hot Pot, and has the connections to get the HotPots and trainers to the Gaga camp. Now, we just need YOU to help spread the word about using the power of the sun, raise the funds, and get these cookers to people that need them desperately.  

 

Please show your support for Solar Cooking and for Helping the Sudanese Refugees NOW, by clicking to donate. Thank you so much!