Fuel Efficient, Life Saving Stoves for 40 Families

Dear donors

It is our great pleasure to be able to thank you for your extremely generous support over the last few years and to inform you that thanks to all of your tireless contributions, all families in the village of San Rafael in Honduras now have an energy-efficient stove, and for this reason, we now no longer require donations. It is so good that the population can now take their lives into their own hands when it comes to cooking and health and safety in the home, which is fantastic.

Previously, the indigenous families of rural Honduras were subjected to indoor wood smoke which is a greater health issue than malaria, but now because of your help, we have been able to improve these families lives by improving their health & safety conditions in their own homes, which is great news.

Many thanks again for all of your support over the years; we really cannot thank you enough for your generosity, you can see the difference that your contributions have made.

The stove project continues to provide energy-efficient stoves for families in the communities. The children's attendance has to be good for the family to receive a stove, though once they have the stove, the benefits are immediate, with the smoke now funneled through a chimney and up to 75% less firewood used, which obviously cuts down the time the children are needed to collect firewood, and also helps the environment with less deforestation.

With more donations this project can continue to grow, proving the help that is needed for the all of the families in the community. Not only can this project greatly improve the health of the entire community, it can also act as a long term income generator – it certainly has great potential! Before this project began, the people wanted to use less wood to cook but they couldn’t afford the stoves so they are in a lose-lose cycle, they either had to cut down more trees or buy more wood to cook in an unhealthy, uneconomic manner. Luckily this problem is improving dramatically through all of the generous donations!

The benefits of the stoves we have already built are showing instant dividends, with far fewer complaints of chest infections, as there is no longer indoor-smoke inhalation from the previous brick fires. The fuel efficient stoves we have built have also allowed the families to spend less money on firewood. Fuel efficient stoves also provide a greater quantity of food in a short period. 

We still need to build a further 100 stoves in the area and at $250 each and thanks to generous donations; we hopefully will accomplish this in 2013/14. These stoves are incredible efficient to the environment but also to the communities.  

We have been building energy efficient stoves in Honduras for the past five years. We have recently checked in to see how the stoves and more importantly the families are doing. The health of the families in which we work has improved enormously as energy efficient stoves are virtually smokeless leading to less respiratory infections. The structures themselves are still in perfectly operative condition. 

An energy efficient stove is built to last approximately 20 years. Energy efficient stoves are approximately 50% more efficient than an open fire. These stoves are also a safer method of cooking for the communities. Previous methods of cooking with two stone fires resulted in many burns.  

In addition to the saving in greenhouse gas emissions, the reduced need for firewood leads to a corresponding reduction in the amount of time spent collecting the material. They provide more food in less time making them perfect for large quantities. 

Smiles all round :)

We would like to share the most recent trustee report from the GVI Charitable Trust. This report covers the six month period from July to December 2011.

This has been by far the most successful period. In six months we have raised nearly as much as we did the whole previous year. This increase in funding has brought a corresponding increase in the impact we have been able to create on our programs around the world.

During this period we have invested in sustainable education across Latin America. This includes support for the elderly in Guatemala and income generation schemes to support education in Honduras and Ecuador. In Mexico we have worked with a community to establish a recycling centre and in Kenya our partners in Mombasa will now see impoverished students complete primary education to earn qualifications for the first time.

These are just a few highlights of an amazing, productive and rewarding six months. Thank you to everyone who has supported us and played a crucial role in these achievements.

• GVI Charitable Trust Annual Report (PDF)