By Daniela Bueso | TWP Mesoamerica Program Director
People who learn about Trees, Water & People’s (TWP) clean cookstove program that we started with our community partner, ADHESA, more than two decades ago may not understand why we call our flagship technology the Justa stove. Put simply, the stove is named after its inventor….one very remarkable woman.
The woman who led the development of the Justa stove technology is one of the rare ones. Fed up with respiratory issues that plagued her and others in her community, she launched a women-led initiative to get smoke out of people’s kitchens. Driven by a vision of better health and a cleaner environment, this woman got the attention of organizations through her local church, who set out to design a better wood-burning cookstove in her village.
This small group tried several designs throughout the early 1990s with mixed success, until one group of cookstove designers from Aprovecho Research Center, working with TWP and AHDESA, arrived in the Aldea de Suyapa after Hurricane Mitch. The team wanted to address the challenge of firewood scarcity, and accepted the woman’s advice of what design features were indispensable for a Honduran cook like herself. The result was the Justa cookstove — named after her, in honor of her leadership and counsel during the design process. Since then, this stove has helped reduce deforestation and improve the respiratory health of millions of women, children and families across Central America.
To date in 2024, TWP and AHDESA have commissioned more than 25 new men and women stove builders (14 women and 11 men) to install 150 Justa stoves through the “Maestros Fogoneros” program throughout Honduras. We expect to complete our goal of 3,000 stoves by the end of the year. In addition, AHDESA has signed an additional 600 new stoves through the “Paraiso Verde” Project in collaboration with another counterpart that will continue into 2025.
It’s only because of the commitment from supporters such as GlobalGiving donors that we are able to change health and air quality overnight, reduce deforestation by allowing households to use less wood, promote more gender equity and inclusion opportunities for women and younger generations, and providing an economic alternative to families, one stove at a time.
Thank you for your commitment to keeping alive the legacy of the Justa stove and one woman’s groundbreaking vision for protecting the families and forests of Honduras.
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