November 2008
Volume 14, Numbe
r 3
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News you send

[Editor's note: "News you send" is compiled by Tom Sponheim and Kevin Porter, Solar Cookers International's information exchange specialists. E-mail your news items to info@solarcookers.org or send postal mail to Kevin Porter, Solar Cookers International, 1919 21st Street #101, Sacramento, California 95811-6827, USA. We want to hear from you — especially if your program is growing or if your work has not been featured in the Solar Cooker Review before. Please include your contact information. Submissions are subject to editing if printed.]

AFRICA

Uganda

Children look on with awe as Olivia Kanyesigye reveals a pot of solar-cooked riceSolar Cookers International’s recent collaboration with Uganda’s Solar Connect Association (SCA) was inspired by 13-year-old Max Ozimek, an 8th grader from Ohio, USA. Last year, Max researched solar cookers for a science fair project, and learned how the simple devices can make a huge difference for people that lack cooking fuel. Max volunteers at a hospice, whereMax Ozimek explains water test results he befriended Father Alexander Inke, a priest from Obia, Uganda. While listening to Father Inke’s stories of life in Obia, Max was reminded of the African communities he had learned of while researching solar cookers and SCI’s projects abroad. Max thought solar cookers could help the women of Obia, many of whom must walk several miles to gather cooking fuel and household water. Max felt the need to help the small village of Obia, so he and his mother, Mary Lou, began raising funds and contacted SCI about how to proceed. Per SCI’s suggestion, Max and Mary Lou contacted SCA, which has promoted solar cookers in Uganda since the mid-1990s. SCA agreed to provide a five-day integrated cooking training for 22 women that Father Inke identified as community leaders capable of teaching others. Kawesa Mukasa and Olivia Kanyesigye instructed the group (and dozens of onlookers) how to build and use solar cookers and how to cook effectively with the least amount of fuel possible by supplementing solar cookers with fuel-efficient stoves and retained-heat devices when the sun isn’t shining. Longtime SCI friend and supporter Mark Cotham volunteered his time to assist with this effort, and also provided a much-needed vehicle to be used for further trainings in Uganda. Max and SCI staff tested five local water sources in Obia. Participants were shocked to find that most of their water sources were contaminated with Escherichia coli and unsafe to drink. SCI taught them how to cheaply and effectively pasteurize the water with a solar cooker and a Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI). Some of the new solar cooks had already initiated small trainings in their regions just weeks after the workshop. Max is working to ensure these efforts continue by raising funds to purchase materials for extended trainings in Nebbi district, and keeping in close contact with SCI and SCA for follow-up visits over the next few years. SCI and SCA plan to team up again on an integrated cooking and safe water workshop in 2009.

Tanzania

In many countries, including Tanzania, pots must be painted black to make them appropriate for solar cookingSCI recently collaborated with the upstart solar organization TanzSolar to provide a comprehensive solar presentation to 20 local professionals in Musoma. Founded by Marianne Walpert of California, USA, TanzSolar provides affordable photovoltaic solar panels to rural internet companies, individuals and small businesses in northern Tanzania, and is interested in working with SCI to spread solar cooking and solar water pasteurization in northern Tanzania. SCI’s eastern Africa staff members are currently planning a five-day solar cooking and water treatment workshop at the TanzSolar facilities in Musoma, as well as future collaborations in the region. In addition, TanzSolar has become a distributor of solar lanterns that SCI hopes to utilize in some of its project areas in the future.

Benin

SCI plans to assist with efforts to bring safe water and integrated cooking methods to the central town of Copargo. The pilot project is being initiated by Gabriel Kpadonou, sanitation and public hygiene officer at the Ministry of Health in Cotonou, and executive director of the nonprofit organization Environmental Engineering Group (EEG). Through increased visibility and furthered collaborations with health and water professionals in neighboring countries such as Niger, Togo and Burkina Faso, SCI hopes that this opportunity will provide a gateway to increased activities in West Africa.

The coming year looks to be an exciting one, with the expansion of programs to three new countries and the inclusion of integrated cooking methods and water testing into current and future projects. Trees in rural areas cannot replenish themselves as quickly as they are being cut down for fuel, and contaminated water cannot purify itself at the rate that microorganisms are causing disease, and so our mission continues.

Kenya

Henry Ogola Oloo (left) explains solar cooking to a cultural group in Kiberia, KenyaThe Amani Solution Self Help Group began promoting solar cookers in mid-2006 through a series of seminars and demonstrations they conducted in and around Nairobi, including Kiberia and Waithaka. The group had been producing two to three wooden solar box cookers per month, but it has struggled to keep up with demand. Coordinator Henry Ogola Oloo says the group was inspired and moved by four orphans whose parents had died in a car accident. The eldest child, 14-year-old Apiyo, is responsible for cooking for her younger brothers and sisters. The Amani Solution Self Help Group donated a solar cooker to the family, taught them how to use it, and have been monitoring its use and the family’s progress. “It is wonderful and very much different,” says Oloo. “The children say ‘It is just as when our mother was alive. We eat our lunch early and go back to school. Even our supper we eat as early as 7 p.m.’” Prior to owning a solar cooker, the children had to gather firewood before they could begin cooking, delaying their evening meal until about 10 p.m. Contact: Henry Ogola Oloo, coordinator, Amani Solution Self Help Group, PO Box 2168-00202 KNH, Nairobi, Kenya. E-mail: amanahshg@yahoo.com.

Niger / Netherlands

Moustapha Maman’s wife Rakia Maman uses a millet chaff-filled jute bag to insulated a pot of foodIt was reported in the November 2007 Solar Cookers Review that a retained-heat device could be fabricated from two (or more) empty plastic rice bags insulated between with wool or cotton and covered with a third insulated bag, making a container that will keep a pot of food at cooking temperatures long after it is removed from a heat source. Wietske Jongbloed of the Dutch charity KoZon Foundation reports that these work well, but over time the rice bags can develop tears and holes. One of her Niger colleagues, Moustapha Maman, suggests that replacing the outside rice bags with jute bags may add durability, and that millet chaff can be used as an alternative insulation. How did Maman find out about the millet chaff? He used to be a teacher in several villages in Niger. In a fairytale-like story, one day he came across a goose brooding on several eggs. A snake attacked and killed the goose (and the goose fatally injured the snake). Maman put the eggs in a basket filled with millet chaff in hopes that it would keep the eggs warm, which it did. Several days later, eight goslings hatched. Maman says that everyday when he came home from school the goslings recognized their “mother” and followed him. Contact: Wietske Jongbloed, Stichting KoZon, Hollandseweg 384, 6705 BE Wageningen, Netherlands. Tel: 31-317412370, e-mail: wietske-jongbloed@tele2.nl, Web: http://www.kozon.org

Zambia

Manda Chisanga, a safari guide in South Luangwa National Park, first learned about solar cooking from U.S. travelers on safari. He immediately understood the environmental and health benefits that solar cookers could provide to the women of his community, many of whom walk several miles, through areas where elephants sometimes attack humans, to collect firewood for cooking. When Chisanga was named top travel guide by Wanderlust magazine and awarded £5,000 to be spent in his local community, he knew what to do with the money. Chisanga approached SunFire Solutions with a proposal to introduce solar cookers to the women of his community in Luangwa valley. SunFire, a solar cooker promotion and development agency based in Johannesburg, South Africa, distributes a variety of solar cookers and related technologies. According to SunFire representative Crosby Menzies, deforestation is a serious problem in and around wildlife areas like South Luangwa National Park. “Loss of habitat means loss of species, loss of species reduces tourism, lack of tourism brings in less income to the area,” he said. Menzies also noted that women and children must walk increasing distances to collect firewood for cooking, stating, “In many parts of Africa people say that the trees are running away from them.” In 2007, five “SunFire14” parabolic solar cookers were assembled and distributed to families in the village of Mfuwe. Subsequently, an additional 10 cookers have been distributed. SunFire is currently looking for funding to bring several hundred solar cookers to the community of about 6,000 families. The cookers have proven useful for cooking local staples including rice, beans, and maize. The women who have access to the solar cookers have reportedly reduced their firewood collection trips from an average of three per week to only one. A documentary film about the Mfuwe solar cooker project, called “Manda’s Prize,” has been airing on the Al Jazeera documentary program Witness, and can been seen on-line at english.aljazeera.net/programmes/witness/2008/09/2008926152952636740.html Contact: Crosby Menzies, solar cooker specialist, SunFire Solutions. Tel: +27 (0)11 624 2432, e-mail: crosby@sunfire.co.za, Web: http://www.sunfire.co.za

ASIA AND OCEANIA

India

Priests are urging organizers of community Durga Puja festivals in and around Kolkata to “go green” according to an article in India’s national newspaper The Hindu. They hope to reduce the amount of plastic serving dishes and utensils used during the festivals, and are promoting the use of solar cookers to prepare rice offerings to Devi Durga. The West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency will give out awards to puja organizers for use of renewable energy and incorporation of energy efficiency techniques.


New partnerships expand SCI’s reach beyond Kenya

By Karyn Ellis, SCI director of international program development

Solar Cookers International (SCI) has had a significant presence in Kenya for more than a decade, and has at times partnered with organizations in other African countries, most notably in Zimbabwe. As we look towards 2009, SCI is developing partnerships that will expand its reach to the eastern African countries of Uganda and Tanzania, and for the first time, the western Africa country of Benin. Through these partnerships, SCI will work to merge solar cooking and solar water pasteurization with rural water testing (using SCI’s Portable Microbiology Laboratory) and the integrated cooking method that utilizes solar cookers, fuel-efficient stoves and retained-heat devices to maximize fuel savings.


Neloum honored for enriching lives of refugees

Marie Rose NeloumSolar cooking instructor Marie Rose Neloum has received the 2008 Van Heuven Goedhart Award in honor of her efforts to help Darfur refugees living in her country of Chad. The award is given biennially by the Netherlands Refugee Foundation and includes a prize of 50,000 euro to be spent on a refugee project chosen by the winner in consultation with the funding agency. Neloum learned about solar cooking from KoZon Foundation’s Derk Rijks at a training he conducted for a women’s group in N’Djamena, Chad in 2004. She was enthusiastic about solar cooking from day one, and asked Rijks for additional training in solar cooker construction, which he provided. Neloum began making and selling solar CooKits in N’Djamena shortly thereafter. In 2005 Rijks initiated a solar cooking project in Iridimi, Chad for Darfur refugees. (Solar Cookers International was among the organizations that assisted with this project.) Rijks recruited Neloum to help teach the refugees solar cooking skills and methods for maximizing cooking fuel savings by using retained-heat devices and fuel-efficient stoves when the sun isn’t shining. Thanks to her instruction and motivation, a team of auxiliary trainers was able to take over and teach the techniques to other refugee women and girls soon after the project started. When some women asked if they could make the CooKits themselves, Neloum showed them how. Now, about 1,000 CooKits are made every month by 21 craftswomen. In 2007, Neloum was elected president of Tchad Solaire, a nongovernmental organization created to continue the refugee solar cooking project in Iridimi, as well as camps in Touloum and Oure Cassoni. With a secretarial background, Neloum can easily record the names of women who have received cooking lessons, the number of lessons given by auxiliary trainers and the number of hours that the craftswomen have worked, which ensures that the women are properly remunerated for their efforts and that the projects are progressing as planned. According to Rijks, Neloum was instrumental in the success of this project. “Without Marie Rose this project would never have become an intensely desired and totally accepted success,” he said. “She has a most extraordinary way of making women refugees enthusiastic about using solar energy and participating in making it work.” Contact: Wietske Jongbloed, Stichting KoZon, Hollandseweg 384, 6705 BE Wageningen, Netherlands. Tel: 31-317412370, e-mail: wietske-jongbloed@tele2.nl, Web: http://www.kozon.org


Message from the executive director

Dear SCI Friends, What a great quarter this has been for Solar Cookers International (SCI). In September, I visited our Kenya program and participated with our eastern Africa staff in a retreat at a guest house in Kisumu. Nine solar cookers were used to prepare a meal of stew, eggs, vegetables, ugali, and bright pink cake to celebrate five years of SCI’s Sunny Solutions project in Nyakach. A sizable crowd of guests joined us for lunch. The guest house cooks, who were curious about the solar cooking process, shared in the excitement of the event and posed with SCI staff while dressed in their white uniforms and chef hats. Guest house cooks were anxious to sample the solar cakeA most enjoyable part of the retreat was meeting with a community delegation from Nyakach. They reminded us all of the intensive effort that is involved in gathering cooking fuel and the need to protect the environment. They thanked SCI for the project’s many accomplishments, including a reduction in diarrheal diseases. One delegate, who rose to his full 6’ 4” height, said that his attitude about cooking being “only for women” had changed and that he and other men in his community now use solar cookers. During the retreat, SCI staff members shared what they had gained from their Sunny Solutions experience. Many staff members expressed an increase in self confidence as a result of presenting before large groups of people. Others expressed personal satisfaction from helping improve people’s lives, and from friendships developed along the way. Staff members discussed new opportunities beyond Nyakach, including plans for “rolling out” the project to western and eastern provinces in response to numerous training requests. Demand for solar cooker training continues to grow due to increased community awareness resulting from ongoing public demonstrations and radio broadcasts. Individuals and groups ask if SCI can visit their church or school to give a demonstration of what they heard about on the radio. This type of “training on demand” is an important part of the work in Kenya and will grow in the Over the past five years, SCI staff members and volunteers have helped families in Nyakach, Kenya learn to use simple solar cookers that ease burdens and are safe around childrenmonths ahead. Water testing for Escherichia coli and training in solar water pasteurization are also expanding in Kenya. SCI’s Eastern Africa Director Margaret Owino and I met with a representative of the Kenya Water Resources Management Authority (WRMA) to discuss the recently implemented Safe Water Project supported by the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund. The WRMA representative stressed the importance of working with community water associations to help contact people in rural areas that could benefit from simple technologies that make water safe to drink. We met with a representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) who encouraged us to work with rural groups that have been organized with the assistance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We discussed how inclusion of SCI’s Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI) into hygiene kits provided by other institutions could dramatically help to reduce diarrheal diseases. Another topic of interest was a World Health Assembly scheduled for August 2009 in Nairobi. SCI will help to organize this event, which will bring together representatives of WHO and other development organizations from all parts of the world. We will also present a paper about our work in Kenya and develop a work plan with WHO. A meeting with the Peace Corps country director and a Peace Corps public health representative focused on how solar cookers, and SCI’s Portable Microbiology Laboratory (PML) and WAPI, can be incorporated into the training program of future Peace Corps Volunteers. One of the comments made by the country director was, “I don’t see why this can’t be built into the training of all incoming groups.” SCI President Dr. Bob Metcalf, having just arrived from the World Water Congress in Vienna, joined me and our volunteer United Nations advocates for a meeting in Geneva with the WHO health promotion coordinator. “Official relations” between WHO and SCI was discussed and advanced, and we again talked about how SCI can support the World Health Assembly in Nairobi next year. Dr. Metcalf also introduced the PML to technical officers of the Public Health and Environment division of WHO, some of whom are working on a simple water testing system and can now consider SCI’s methods. While in Geneva, we met with representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to discuss current and future use of solar cookers in Chad refugee camps. At the request of UNHCR, SCI taught solar cooking skills to two Sudanese men, who then returned to Darfur to train Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living in camps. A most fortuitous meeting also took place with the senior water and sanitation officer of UNHCR. He was not familiar with the PML and invited Dr. Metcalf to present at the annual meeting of the UNHCR representatives for East Africa in Nairobi. UNHCR representatives from eight countries received PML training. It was thrilling to see SCI’s work expanding in Kenya. I am impressed by all of the opportunities we have to help reduce life-shortening tasks and incidence of waterborne diseases. Interest in PML water testing and solar water pasteurization is growing, and invitations to train others in locations such as the Philippines, Tanzania, Uganda, and Cambodia are on the horizon. The enthusiasm among representatives of the international development community, including UNICEF, is marvelous and we look forward to the challenges of responding to expressed needs. We are confident that you share our enthusiasm, and hope that you will consider supporting these efforts financially as we move forward. Have a wonderful holiday season and thank you for your partnership.

Patrick T. Widner
SCI executive director

News from the SCI Association

by Bev Blum, SCIA secretariat

Latest news

The Solar Cookers International (SCI) board of directors recently reaffirmed its willingness to be the legal umbrella for the Solar Cookers International Association (SCIA) network. SCIA now includes 95 organizations and over 150 individuals in 53 countries. Members are diverse in size and technologies promoted, but all share a passion to spread food-related solar technologies for health, economic, and environmental benefits. SCIA has collectively issued statements on carbon credits and solar cookers’ relevance to indoor air pollution, and organized meetings for SCI’s United Nations representatives with other key advocates through SCIA’s Advocacy Task Force.

SCIA’s newest members include:

Asociacion Cobijo de los Vientos (Spain), Earth Passengers, (Taiwan), Earthbound Technologies (USA), Laboratorio de Energia Solar & Departamento de Fisica (Costa Rica), Miami Country Day School (USA), Moringa Research Agency (Kenya), Network of Solar Actors of West Africa & Odey Renewable Energy Technology Company Limited (Nigeria), Process Improvement Systems (India), Program de Fuentes Alternas de Energia (Nicaragua), Rohitas Electronics (India), Solar Alternatives and Associated Programs (India), SunStove Organization (South Africa), Synopsis (France), Vietnam Solar Serve (Vietnam), Wakulima Self Help Group (Kenya), Women in Peace Education and Awareness Initiative (Nigeria)

Members, be sure to check and regularly update your individual and organization pages of the Solar Cooking Archive wiki, accessible through the SCIA page at http://www.solarcooking.org/scia. This splendid wiki contains hundreds of pages of content and numerous links to other Web resources. You can easily edit your own wiki pages, or send changes to SCI Information Exchange Specialist Tom Sponheim by e-mail at webmaster@solarcooking.org.

Next steps

The spread of solar devices for household food preparation and water processing have accelerated over the past two decades. Opportunities grow each day and we continually re-examine what can be done better collectively than by individual, isolated agencies. This will be discussed by SCIA members and others at the January 14-16, 2009 Solar Food Processing Conference in Indore, India (www.solarfood2009.org) sponsored by the International Solar Energy Society. While many members represent humanitarian programs, wider spread also requires up-scaling commercial production, distribution, and effective marketing. We solicit and welcome ideas, and will include them in the conference discussions. Please send your ideas to me by e-mail: association@solarcookers.org, or by post to: Bev Blum, SCIA secretariat, 4271 Round Valley Circle, Stockton, California 95207, USA.

Invitation to join

SCIA is an international network of promoters of water- and food-related solar technologies formed in 2006. Membership is free. For more information, and to join and/or donate, visit us on the Web at http://www.solarcooking.org/scia.


Award-winning Prometheus solar cookers on closeout

Solar Energy Limited, UK, is looking to dispose of its inventory of 800 Prometheus solar cookers. According to company representative Dominic Michaelis, the cookers are made of waterproof cardboard sandwiched between two layers of polyester film, one of which is reflective. Though the functionality of the Prometheus is similar to parabolic-type solar cookers, the geodesic construction is unique, earning the European Carton Makers Association (ECMA) Innovation Award in 2000. Michaelis says the cooker reaches temperatures of 200°C, and is capable of boiling 5 liters of water in under 20 minutes. Tests have shown that the Prometheus is also capable of medical sterilization with a special pressure cooker. The Prometheus retailed for about 120 euros, but Solar Energy Limited is willing to give away bulk, unpackaged quantities free of charge, or packaged quantities of 100 or more for 20 euros each unit. The cookers can either be picked up in Oxfordshire or shipped for a fee. Contact: Dominic Michaelis, Solar Energy Limited, 11 Highlever Rd, London, W10 6PP, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0)7968 988 327, E-mail: Dominic.Michaelis@wanadoo.fr.


African Women and Water Conference 2008

by Dr. Bob Metcalf, SCI board president

Dr. Metcalf explains Colilert® water test results to Wangari MaathaiSolar Cookers International (SCI) contributed significantly to the African Women and Water Conference (www.africanwomenandwater.org), held the first week of July, 2008, at the Green Belt Movement training center outside Nairobi, Kenya. Sixteen pairs of women — eight from Kenya and eight from seven other African countries — were chosen to attend the educational and empowering conference organized by A Single Drop, Crabgrass, Groots Kenya, and the Women’s Earth Alliance. SCI’s Faustine Odaba became known as “Mama Solar” as she taught the women how to build and use a CooKit to pasteurize water and cook food. I taught basic microbiology and how to use SCI’s Portable Microbiology Laboratory (PML) to test water samples the women brought from their communities. SCI provided each pair of women with a PML, and each participant with a CooKit and a Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI) for immediate use when they return home. A highlight of the closing ceremony was the appearance of 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Maathai, who had endorsed the conference. Odaba and SCI’s Eastern Africa Director, Margaret Owino, presented Maathai with a CooKit, and I was able to show the Nobel Prize Laureate the Colilert® and Petrifilm™ water test results from the various communities.


Partnership for Clean Indoor Air forum announced

The 4th biennial Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA) forum will be held in Kampala, Uganda from March 23-28, 2009. Forum participants will share the latest developments in technologies, fuels, monitoring and evaluation, commercialization, carbon financing, awareness creation, and research, and make new commitments to significantly reduce exposure to indoor air pollution from cooking and heating practices. The forum is designed to strengthen skills in four essential components of sustainable household energy programs: 1. Meeting the need of local communities for clean, efficient, affordable, and safe cooking/heating options 2. Improving technologies, fuels, and practices for reducing exposure to indoor air pollution 3. Developing commercial markets for clean and efficient technologies and fuels 4. Monitoring and evaluating the health, social, economic, and environmental impacts of programs Several solar cooker promoters attended the 2007 PCIA forum in Bangalore, India, where Solar Cookers International’s Eastern Africa Director Margaret Owino received the first ever International Net Forward Energy Award for her energy, optimism, and enthusiasm in promoting solar cooking and related skills. Forum registration is available through January 15, 2009 at www.pciaonline.org/2009ForumRegistration. Limited financial assistance may be available for early registrants and PCIA members.


Inspirational essays, drawings from unknown refugee

We received several essays and drawings from a refugee living in Zimbabwe named Lunda Lalondi Vicente, praising SCI’s work around the world spreading solar cookers and related technologies, and honoring the hundreds of hours SCI’s volunteers spend each year assisting with these efforts. (Vicente drew and wrote the wonderful cartoon on cover, as well as the artwork on this page.) The inspiring documents remind us of the importance of our mission and the importance of our dedicated volunteers in accomplishing our goals. Here are a few excerpts from Vicente’s remarks about SCI’s volunteers.

“I would like to encourage you to continue the fine work you are doing. I appreciate your courage — you use your time, hands, feet, ideas and ability to help other people to solve their problems of water pasteurization and shortage of fuel by teaching them how to cook using energy from the sun. … “Indeed the work of SCI’s volunteers makes a huge contribution to the community life in remote villages and areas around the world. For example, in Kakuma refugee camp and others, their work to teach women and men how to cook refugee food using energy from the sun since wood is very hard to find being in the middle of the desert. … “Even though many refugees and other people who are witness of the work which SCI’s volunteers do (people feel that such ones are ‘worth their weight in gold’), much of their work is not published in other magazines, even not televised by the media. Through this letter I would like to take advantage to congratulate the Solar Cooker Review which aims to present serious content with vividness and style. … “Thank you for your work and sacrifice; you give yourself to those who are outside your group and with whom you have absolutely nothing in common. You do it out of kindness, not for recognition or glory. Please just continue to teach people how to cook using the energy from the sun until the knowledge will cover the earth as the water covers the sea.”


Tributes

Tribute gifts have been given to Solar Cookers International by:

  • Ole Thogersen in honor of Dorothy
  • Margaret Bowles in honor of Arvin Ewing
  • Peter Lowenthal in memory of William Lowenthal
  • Karyn Ellis in honor of Carolyn J. Ellis
  • Carol N. Gerlitz in memory of her husband
  • William A. Braddock
  • Edwin Kampmann in honor of the Solar Cooker Review
  • Lois and James Miller in memory of Andrea Zojourner
  • Frances Britt in memory of Andrea Zojourner
  • Paul Krahn in memory of Andrea Zojourner
  • Daria Wightman in memory of Andrea Zojourner
  • Mary M. Agatstein in honor of Catherine McDonald
  • Sara Cole in honor of Anne Alford
  • Virginia Kotler in memory of Cary Herz
  • Maj. Eugene Meade in memory of Emi Meade

Calling all U.S. federal employees!

Are you a federal employee? Do you know one? Solar Cookers International (SCI) has again qualified as a participating organization in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). SCI is a beneficiary of the effort through the Aid for Africa Federation. We are proud to meet the rigorous financial, accountability, and governance standards, and ask for your CFC support. Federal employees have the option of supporting SCI with either a one-time gift or with recurring payroll deductions. For those interested in joining the effort, our CFC number is 11023. This code directs your donation to SCI’s Africa programs. Information is available on-line at aidforafrica.org/members.php?id=43. Your questions are also welcomed by SCI Executive Director Patrick Widner. You can reach him by telephone: (916) 455-4499, or e-mail: patrick@solarcookers.org. Thanks, federal employees, for your philanthropy and involvement in the effort to spread this sustainable solar solution.


Solar Cooker Review

Solar Cooker Review is published two or three times per year with the purpose of presenting solar cooking information from around the world. Topics include solar cooker technology, dissemination strategies, educational materials, and cultural and social adaptations. From time to time we cover related topics such as women’s issues, wood shortages, health, nutrition, air pollution, climatic changes, and the environment.

The Review is sent to those who contribute money or news about solar cooking projects. The suggested subscription price is $10/year. Single copies are sent free to select libraries and groups overseas.

We welcome reports and commentary related to solar cooking for possible inclusion. These may be edited for clarity or space. Please cite sources whenever possible. We will credit your contribution. Send to Solar Cookers International (SCI), 1919 21st Street #101, Sacramento, California 95811-6827, USA. You may also submit by fax: +1 (916) 455-4498 or e-mail: kevin@solarcookers.org.

The Review is compiled and edited by Kevin Porter, SCI’s education resources director, with assistance from other staff. Layout is graciously donated by IMPACT Publications located in Medford, Oregon, USA.

SCI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization assisting communities in using the power of the sun to cook food and pasteurize water for the benefit of people and environments. SCI is a member of InterAction. We do not sell, rent or trade names of our donors. Tax ID # 68-0153141.

The Review is available online at www.solarcooking.org/docs.htm#newsletters.

2008 Board of Directors

Robert Metcalf, PhD Jack Blanks Virginie Mitchem Patt Hull Gabriele Simbriger-Williams Sue Corbett Joseph Huma Sotiris Kolokotronis Edye Kuyper Arline J. Lederman Patricia McArdle James Moose, LLP Michael Mora Dawit Tadesse, PhD

This document is published on The Solar Cooking Archive at http://solarcooking.org/newsletters/scrnov08.htm. For questions or comments, contact webmaster@solarcooking.org