Project #15 - Oven/Stove Project

    Women in Abundancia work hard to collect wood for all their cooking and heating needs. In addition to the work they are exposed to the smoke on a daily basis, which is a high public health concern. Our goal was to have student research alternative methods to cooking that could be introduced to lessen their dependence on wood and exposure to smoke. Not everything we did in Abundancia turned out like we had hoped. We had students conduct research, build and use both solar ovens and rocket stoves in Idaho as possible solutions. In Abundancia we built two solar ovens, and tried to cook several meals. We had a 50% success rate. We felt that that was not a high enough success rate so we did not introduce them to the community. We also built two rocket stoves. They did not operate like the ones we made in Idaho, taking over an hour and a half to heat water. Perhaps it was because the make up of the bricks or the  wood that was being burned. This project was also shelved pending further research.