In Nepal, usually it's women who cook. They face blockades, fuel crises and poverty. Cooking fuel is often unavailable. Free solar thermal energy is abundant. Goals: Build solar cookers from locally available materials Train/empower primarily women: elderly, orphans, disabled and others to obtain cooking/fuel security Protect family health from diseases due to indoor air pollution Reduce environmental and forest degradation Encourage women to set up micro-businesses.
The fourth leading cause of death in developing countries is household air pollution-causing more deaths than HIV/AIDS and malaria, combined. Nearly 3 billion people cook over open fires. And 7 million people die prematurely each year due to air pollution (per World Health Organization). Household air pollution is the #1 environmental risk factor for the burden of disease in developing countries, responsible for a higher incidence of disease than unclean drinking water and poor sanitation.
SCI supports the Nepalese organization FOST (Foundation for Sustainable Technologies) to distribute solar cookers to those in need and train people how to make and use solar cookers.
Participants make their own solar cookers and will be able to save approximately 37% of their fuel expenses by solar cooking. Some participants will start their own solar cooking micro-businesses to support their families.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
