Remember it is our hearts that heat the world

I got a letter earlier today from my friend Erin from the Womens' Refugee Commission. They've long been on a global quest to bring safer cooking stoves to women around the globe.  most of the problems women and their children face are from poor living conditions; such as only having a charcoal stove for heating and cooking.  in case you don't know, charcoal coats the lungs like it does their houses.  the children get lung disease and tuberculosis just like their mothers. Mainly because many of them are strapped to their moms, backs while she is working over that charcoal stove.

They are the Youngest Casualties, and we should start helping to prevent these casualties, today.

There are safer stoves and methods of cooking and heating for these families.  are you aware that a parabolic reflector stove can be used in many of these situations without any damage to the people or the planet ?

This is what the Women need - an alternative to Fire and Death







Check out this stove using the energy of the sun to cook a pot of pasta in minutes

Shouldn't these boxes and foil be a part of every donation kit sent to Haiti ? they can be if we push for it. they should be sent to all places that have enough sunlight naturally to provide cooking heat. this is the real lesson of how to fix Haiti. Do it Smart - with Lasting Technology; and Teach the people How to Construct Their Own Solar Cookers and Solar Panels for Power.  Haiti has more than enough sunshine to make this sustainable move now. there is no reason for it not to happen.

Please take a moment and read the note below from Erin. then take one moment and click the link to make a difference. it's simple, and cheap. Women and Children have the highest casualty rates in all societies. we should think of them first when pledging any aid.  Haiti is still in a very precarious position and there seems very little that is happening to impact the daily needs of families - such as permanent safe housing.

When You Have Dinner Tonite - Think of  Nadine and Her Family in the rain and mud, then make a pledge, Please. it is our hearts that heat the world, and our love that fuels it's regrowth.

Give From Your Heart, Women, Children, and Earth; Needs Your Love Today

Dear RE,

On my recent visit to Haiti to assess cooking fuel needs, I met Nadine (not her real name) a 30-year-old mother of two boys whose new "home" is a former park in the middle of the Pétionville neighborhood in the capital, Port-au-Prince. It had been raining. The ground was muddy and slick and her shelter did not have a floor. But it did have walls and a roof of bed sheets and plastic sheeting. A rudimentary charcoal stove was set up just outside the shelter, where a pot of rice was cooking for the day's meal.

Nadine had been given food, but no safe way to cook it. You can help change that reality.

As with most of the 4,000 people living in the crowded settlement, Nadine had received a ration of rice and a cooking pot from the United Nations—but no fuel.  Although she has limited funds, she has to buy her own charcoal to cook for her family. The cost of charcoal has gone up by about 25 percent since the earthquake.

The Women's Refugee Commission undertook this crucial assessment of cooking fuel needs in Haiti as part of a strategy to "build back" a better household energy strategy for those who desperately need it.

The Women's Refugee Commission is urging the humanitarian community to adopt a three-phase cooking fuel strategy in Haiti:

1) Test and stockpile innovative new fuel technologies, like ethanol flame disks.   

                                                             

2) Provide fuel rations (in addition to food) to "host families" to help ease the burden of having to cook for extra family members.

3) Include the rural population in the manufacturing of alternative fuels and energy technologies to help provide a viable means of earning a living.

 
Families like Nadine's are spending more than 40 percent of their daily income on cooking fuel. Other families without any access to income have resorted to collecting the few scraps of scrub bushes growing on the edges of their tent encampments to cook with.

The need for cooking fuel will only increase as the rainy and hurricane seasons quickly approach, more food rations are distributed to displaced families and those few branches burn to ash.

We can make a difference in the lives of people like Nadine only with your continued support. 

Please give to the Women's Refugee Commission today, so we can help to provide safe, affordable cooking fuel to those displaced by the earthquake.

Sincerely,

Erin Patrick

Senior Program Officer

Fuel and Firewood Initiative

P.S.  You can read my full trip report here.

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