Solar Fruit Dehydrators for MicroEntrepreneurs

This year, you helped 10 women farmers generate an income sustainably.

The isolated community of Santa Isabel is made up of 22 families living in extreme poverty.

They previously worked as a cooperative growing okra for export, but quit this activity last year due to rising costs of chemical inputs and low pay-off.  Having previously been day-laborers at a large plantation; they won a legal battle against their employer for underpayment, settling the court case with the land they now own and grow food on. This experience bonded them into a highly organized and collaborative community, with high levels of mutual trust.

Now the community makes a meager living from selling herbs and fruit but must send their children (at 8 years old)  to work as assistants in markets and buses. Their lands produce the family's food, but not the costs of education, clothing and  healthcare. 

During the planning phase of our community solar power and water filters project (completed earlier this month),  we were meeting with 20 community members, who responded with great interest to the story of ATC’s solar dehydrators, operated by two other cooperatives in the region. One member commented that this would be a very interesting approach to creating value-added farm products with little input cost for energy or hard labor. 

The solar dehydrator is a passive solar device that is made from locally available and affordable products. The design is engineered to efficiently dry large quantities of fruit, herbs, meats, mushrooms and seeds to preserve the nutritional quality and taste of a wide variety of farm products. ATC technologies are also designed to be easily replicable with locally available materials and skills.

Now that you helped us bring Santa Isabel their solar dehydrator, we are beginning microentreprenuership training! 10 women will be participating in training for: recipe development, market & client identification, packaging, and health & sanitation license!