By Candis Krummel | President of the Board of Directors
When Andrea got married, as is the Tz’utujil custom, she went to live with the family of her husband. In this household, the family uses an improved ONIL cookstove which Tui’k Ruch’Lew had installed some years ago. Andrea had never seen one of these stoves and she was delighted with its efficiency, cleanliness and tremendous savings on firewood - not to mention no toxic smoke in her face, from which she had suffered over the open fire hearth, in the house where she grew up.
After the birth of their first child, it was time for Andrea and her husband to make their own kitchen. Andrea wanted an ONIL stove but her husband said they would have to wait until they saved the necessary money to pay their part of the stove costs - each recipient in TRL’s stove program makes a small donation towards their stove as a demonstration of their commitment to care for and maintain it. Andrea had noticed a practically new but abandoned ONIL stove in the yard of a neighbor - originally dropped off by a well-intentioned charitable group who never explained how to use the stove nor followed up on the installation. The family never really used it. Andrea acquired the remains of the stove.
Thrilled with her find, Andrea called Tui’k Ruch’Lew to ask for our help in restoring the stove, which we were glad to do. For a small investment in stove parts, she acquired her ONIL stove. Today Andrea is still using the renovated ONIL stove and carefully maintains it in good working condition. It may look old on the outside, but the innovative design, which cuts consumption of firewood by nearly 70% and almost entirely reduces harmful CO2 emissions and black carbon, is still intact and functioning perfectly. That discarded stove was a treasure in Andrea’s eyes and it is now enrolled in TRL’s project, where we visit the stove each year to ensure its continued successful functioning - part of monitoring every stove in our project.
Your donations to Tui’k Ruch’ Lew’s project “Protect Guatemala Forests with Clean Cookstoves” not only improves the health and economy of a family, but it also saves the trees on our mountains. Scientists tell us that protecting native forests which provide a carbon sink is one of the most efficient ways to reduce CO2 in our atmosphere. Our stove project not only saves those forests but reduces the amount of CO2 which is released by cooking over an open fire, by three tons in just the first year of stove use. You are taking DIRECT CLIMATE ACTION when you support TRL’s Clean Stove project!
Your donations are helping families like Andreas'. And by spreading the word, you can continue to support us.
We wish you a wonderful day.
The team of Tui'k Ruch'Lew
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