By Mirna Angulo | Project Coordinator
Wisconsin/Nicaragua Partners volunteers are working together to improve the health of women and families who use open fires for daily cooking. While we cannot solve the country wide problem, we can make a difference for every stove that is installed and includes a chimney (approx materials cost $50). This report is an illustration of stove #20 being installed with the help of five student volunteers from the UNI (Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, Managua) and Felix, Architecture Professor directing the installation. With half of the students being new to the stove project, Felix exhibited much patience while explaining to the students what they were going to work on.
The installation started with a workshop using the mock up, a very good illustrative tool so people get a better idea of the process and how the stove works. Note the size of the kitchen in the photos, very small and challenging to have enough room to move around, but they did it. Two of the students had to go up the mango tree to cut the branches where the pipe was going to go.
The location of the stove was selected by the El Carmen Learning Center coordinator and leader. The head of the house is Migdalia, she lives in the house with five more adults and two girls. Migdalia works drying out palm to sell it to people from Masaya for crafts. They needed a stove so bad as they were cooking on left overs of what it would be translated to “laundry sink” made out of cement. Note the photo of the old stove or what was left of it. The family had been using that for cooking for seven years, they would normally cook three meals a day with firewood.
Midgalia expressed, “I feel very thankful for the benefit of the stove, now I don’t have to worry about the old piece falling on our feet…” she laughs, “Thanks to the organization and people who organize this project, thanks to donors as now we’ll cook with no smoke and therefore my family will be healthy.” She is no longer worried about inhaling smoke anymore, they will be smoke free. One of her daughters could no longer cook because the smoke was affecting one of her eyes. “Now she can cook without a problem,” Madgalia says, “Blessings and may God allow this project to continue and save more families from the damage of the smoke.”
Special thanks to Felix for leading the student volunteers who seemed to enjoy this experience, they never complained about helping or anything, on the contrary, they were joyful and charming people to work with. Final comment from Felix, “By the way, thanks for the opportunity to work with the organization!” We are grateful for the many dedicated volunteers who come together for the good of others.
By Mirna Angulo and Leonor Guerrero | Project coordinators
By Leonor Guerrero | volunteer coordinator
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