By David Stillman | PPAF Executive Director and Project Leader
Dear friends and supporters,
The focus areas in the latest three months are steps toward a Haitian solar cooking cookbook, design and conduct of local surveys, and demonstrations of solar cooking. We have made good progress on these, thanks to collaborators in Haiti and PPAF volunteers here in the USA.
In previous reports we have highlighted a collaborator and his neighbor in Jacmel who prepare twelve or more solar cooking tests each month since last year. They send us reports and photos each time. We now have enough depth and variety of information and photos to begin creating drafts of recipe pages. These illustrate the practicality of solar cooking and itemize the ingredients and directions for tasty dishes. The testing and results are at the level of low-income families who typically don’t realize how sunshine can cook a good meal and save money otherwise spent on charcoal. Breathing charcoal fumes also contributes to respiratory disease.
A call for volunteers in New York to help edit and assemble pages inspired several to join us. We are glad for them to share in the effort and widen the circle of influence. We aim for these illustrated sheets of recipes to be useful initially with teams we are already working with in Haiti, and to help promote solar cooking possibilities internationally.
Regarding surveys, we have taken the Solar Cooker International survey materials for user surveys and needs assessment surveys, modified them a bit for use in Haiti, and devised ways to conduct and report on the surveys by cell phone or computer. We have tested the surveys with several Haitian colleagues and have given the user survey a first run in Cotes de Fer. Next, we will administer the user survey in Jacmel with persons who received solar cookers from us through the Art Creation Foundation for Children, and then in Hinche for those who received solar cookers from us through the University Notre Dame d’Haiti.
As for demonstrations of solar cooking, our collaborators in Jacmel, Cotes de Fer and Hinche have conducted sessions with families and with local institutions including a community center, an orphanage, a maternity center and with staff of a hospital.
Regarding the ongoing PPAF work: At the University Notre Dame d’Haiti in Hinche, the solar and bio course is part way through another semester. At the Art Creation Foundation for Children in Jacmel, our support continues for classes on solar cooking and sewing. At the KDCK community center in Cotes de Fer, the biodigester we supplied, plus solar cookers from others, provide cooking gas, garden fertilizer, and materials for a cooking class for persons aiming toward food service jobs. Information we received from Solar Cookers International provided impetus for KDCK to construct a permanent installation of back-to-back solar cookers that use four pots. PPAF supported our colleague Fedno Lubin from Jacmel to go on assignment to Cotes de Fer to help update and expand the work being done at the community center.
Dear friends, thank you for your support! Please be sure to look at the attached photos which highlight recent work, tour our website www.ppafoundation.org, and join in our enthusiasm!
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