Small Grant to Design, Develop and Distribute Retained Heat Cooker (RHC) in Guatemala

Project Information

Country:

Guatemala

Organization (running the project):

HELPS International

Project image:

Duration:

Apr 2004 - Apr 2007

Goals:

HELPS is particularlly interested in using an intergrated approach to insure total sustainability of poverty reduction. Their programs address issues in respritory health, economic developement, education, and infastructure construction. The overall goal of the HELPS pilot project is to promote the ONIL Cooker and a retained heat cooker ("hay box") in rural areas of Guatemala, to help reduce exposure to indoor smoke from home cooking and/or heating practices. Specific objectives include: (i) Educate 100,000 households about the health impacts of indoor air pollution from household energy use; (ii) Train and educate local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who will then promote retained heat cookers (RHC) in local communities using women promoters; (iii) Improve technology and design of RHCs to be able to depend on locally available materials, minimizing cost of production and enabling mass dissemination; (iv) Establish a distribution method working though established NGOs to distribute RHCs in 1500 households and other facilities; and (v) Generate 75 new small businesses capable of producing and marketing improved cooking and/or heating technology.

Background:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) is funding the HELPS International Retained Heat Cooker Project through a small grant to design, develop and distribute the RHCs in Guatemala. With support from the Shell Foundation, HELPS has established a stove factory in Guatemala, producing and distributing 2,800 improved cookstoves. They anticipate an additional 15% savings in firewood in homes already using the HELPS improved cookstove with a 70% reduction in firewood use. HELPS believes that one of the greatest barriers to adopting an impoved cookstove by community members is the lack of training in how to use the ONIL Cooker. The goal of the social and cultural aspect of this program is to train women how to use the cooker that will help instill conficence. In the HELPS market development strategy for improved cooking technologies, HELPS plans to distribute cookstoves through community development programs and provide cookstoves to 33 other NGOs working throughout Guatemala. The stove technology in this project will be tested using a protocal developed by Aprovecho and University of California at Berkley as standard methods of evaluating stove performance. In addition, indoor air pollution exposure and health monitoring will be done in all areas of Guatemala where HELPS is located. HELPS will moniter CO and smoke particulate matter using the HOBO CO analyzer and the particle measuring equipement developed by the University of California at Berkeley.

Expected Outcome:

Through this project, HELPS aims to educate 100,000 people about the impacts of indoor air pollution from household energy use, reach 1,500 homes or other facilities by improving their cooking practices, aid in the creation of 75 new small businesses that produce the improved technologies and reduce exposure of indoor smoke for 9,000 people.

Status:

The development, production, and field testing of RHCs in village setting has been completed. Plastic welding techniques for RHC production have been improved, resulting in lower production costs and an overall higher quality product. Performance of the production units were verified in the lab using the Pico analyzer, showing that performance of the production units were superior to the performance of units that had been hand built and field tested. Stove awareness building is ongoing. Support materials for demonstrations and promotional uses have been finalized. The ONIL Cookers were successfully demonstrated in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. In addition, they have been invited to talk about the ONIL cooker on the radio program "Good Morning Guatemala". The scale-up commercialization of this project is well underway. A sales person was hired to manage all ONIL products. Labeling and packaging of stoves have been finalized and the ONIL products have started registering as a trademark. Two production personnel were hired and trained that are able to produce 25 Cookers per day. Currently, HELPS has been communicating with mainstream hardware chains in Guatemala to sell RHCs through their outlets. In addition, a RHC sales video and RHC Guide is in production.