Susan introduced a video prepared especially for Rotary clubs about an international project called Stove Team. It was a Rotarian, Nancy Hughes, from Oregon who founded the non- profit organization in 2008 after seeing the Stove Team International works primarily in Latin America—Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras where most families use open fire cooking which is hazardous to their health and to the environment. It is reported that open fire cooking releases more black car- bon into the atmosphere than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. Over four billion people world-wide cook on an open fire— children and mothers are most affected with smoke causing a serious health crisis. It is like smoking 400 cigarettes every hour or two packs a day equivalent and is a leading cause of death of small children who also often suffer burns from the fire. In addition, to the hazards of open fire cooking, women and children work over twenty hours a week to collect enough wood to cook which results in generational poverty and lack of education. 

StoveTeam has a very viable solution—vented cookstoves called Justa (hoo-sta) that are made of bricks and mortar and are built in place by local groups benefiting a family of eight, providing meaningful employment while contributing to solutions to climate change and deforestation. The stove is cool to touch on the outside and the chimney means there is no smoke inside the house. Additionally, the stove requires half as much wood and cooks much faster. It is made in such a way that honors the preparation of local foods. Local stove technicians trained by StoveTeam build and maintain each stove, and each family is directly involved in building their stove, leading to greater community adoption and project sustainability.

The GPS location of each stove is recorded, and a regular maintenance and follow-up plan ensures they will continue working long into the future. The other good news is that it costs only $100 to produce using local persons and materials. The group is hoping to raise funds to increase the number of stoves built. Schools are also getting stoves designed to cook for larger groups. According to the organization, it has been responsible for the distribution of over 76,300 stoves to date, however, the need is great because over four billion women world-wide cook over an open fire often with a baby strapped to their back who take the full brunt of the smoke and carbon released.

Check out stoveteam.org for more detailsabout this worthy project.