Fuel-Efficient Stoves for Guatemala

There has been tremendous progress with our work since we last reported to you on EcoLogic’s fuel-efficient stove project in Guatemala. I am very happy to inform - thanks in part to your contribution - that EcoLogic has built an additional 65 fuel-efficient stoves since the last update we sent this past May.

Thank you! Thank you! And…Thank you!

As you may remember from our last progress report, EcoLogic expanded its fuel-efficient stove program to include the region of Sarstún, Guatemala. Together with our partners, the Maya Association for the Rural Wellbeing of the Sarstún Region (APROSARSTUN) and the local Fisherfolk Association, we completed construction of 42 wood-saving stoves in three remote villages (accessible only by boat) along the Sarstún River in the first quarter of the year. Because the demand for these stoves in this area was (and is) overwhelmingly high, we assisted our partner, APROSARSTUN, in successfully raising additional funds to build another 35 stoves! Now, 77 families are benefitting from a healthier lifestyle. Plus, there is less demand for firewood, alleviating the strain on surrounding forests.

In Totonicapán Guatemala, EcoLogic’s partner, The Association of the 48 Cantons, selected 30 families most in need of an EcoLogic fuel-efficient stove. These families received training on the construction and maintenance of the stoves and recently completed the installation of all 30 stoves. As part of EcoLogic’s approach, the recipients of a stove agree to plant and maintain trees as part of an overall reforestation effort and the participating families were given 100 native tree species of red and white pine to help reforest the adjoining 52,000-acre old-growth community forest. In the near term, EcoLogic plans to build another 18 stoves in Totonicapán. By the end of the year, families will be planting and tending a total of 4,800 trees.

Thanks so much for making this work possible. However, we still need to raise an additional $15,605! We have plans to construct 18 more fuel-efficient stoves in Totonicapán and another 75 in Huehuetenango in the next few months in villages located in hard-to-reach, rugged terrain. Please consider helping us meet this goal by passing this information along to your friends and urging them to support this work. Please stay tuned for more updates on our stove program…