The Pérez family

On a mild day in midsummer Guatemala, StoveTeam’s International Program Coordinator Alex Eaton set out for the home of Amanda and Leonel Pérez, along with a team of local stove builders hired by StoveTeam.

While they built the family’s stove, they fell in love with this vibrant family. Alex decided to share their stories.

Surrounded by the beautiful backdrop of hills and trees, three inquisitive kids watched our local stove technicians lay the brick and mortar walls of the stove. This gave us time to speak to Amanda and the kids about the health and environmental benefits of their new stove. The kids worried that the smoke from the old fire hurt their mother’s eyes and made her cough. They were happy to learn that their new stove would also help them grow up healthy and strong.

With this new stove, all the Pérez children and their parents will be spared the inevitable health problems commonly associated with open-fire cooking. It helps protect their natural environment as well.

Leonel and Amanda’s daughter Lourdes has struggled in school due to her inability to hear or speak. Thanks to this job with StoveTeam, Leonel and Amanda are making plans to send Lourdes to a school with facilities to handle her disability!

Leonel’s job is providing his family with a stable income for the first time in 20 years, and they are also excited to improve their house over time.

In the field, Leonel loves getting to know the families who receive stoves, working together with his team to build stoves that changes lives, getting to visit new places, and understanding the different living situations within Guatemala.

Flavia

In March of 2020 when work stopped in StoveTeam's Guatemala partner factory due to the outbreak of novel coronavirus COVID-19, StoveTeam's International Program Coordinator Alex Eaton began taking long walks around the area and talking to local people.

He met 72-year-old Flavia as she was carrying firewood for her open cooking fire, an almost-daily chore that she says injures her neck. Flavia lives with her daughter who weaves traditional clothing. Alex filmed the following video of Flavia explaining that the smoke inside her home has damaged her eyesight.

But this story isn’t over! Expect an update soon as StoveTeam is working to provide a clean cookstove and change the lives of Flavia and her daughter.

Of his current experience during the outbreak in Guatemala, Alex says, “I took a long walk yesterday and saw the situation - people walking, riding bicycles, passing their time. One man commented, 'nothing has changed in the village, especially for farmers,' but others held their heads low. The landlady of my house responded, 'with the closure of businesses, I am not able to sell my handicrafts and feed my family'.”

Update: July, 2020

We were thrilled to install one of our first Justa model cookstoves in Flavia’s home! Now Flavia won’t have to worry about any more smoke inside her home damaging her eyes, or carrying so much wood for her fire every day!

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Asuncíon

Like so many women in the developing world, Asunción and her mother-in-law spend all day tending the fire inside their home. Asunción's husband became concerned with the dangers of open fire cooking after seeing his mother suffer the effects of indoor air pollution. 

“My mom used to cook this way… she said the smoke ruined her vision. With the open fire, [the women] are trapped with smoke", he said.

It wasn’t long until Asunción also started having problems with her vision and breathing. Their open fire used a lot of fuel, and carrying firewood on a daily basis was difficult. One of Asunción’s biggest frustrations with her open fire was how often the fire would go out when there was a draft in their home. She feared that every time she would restart the fire, she would expose herself and her three children to the possibility of debilitating burns, a common occurrence in homes like theirs.

For Asunción’s family, and others living in poverty throughout the world, an open fire is a cruel reality. Her husband recognized that despite the difficulty that their open fire presented them, they did not have any other readily available options. 

“With the open fire is how we have to live, if not, we cannot survive”, he said. 

But now, thanks to the generosity of StoveTeam's donors and volunteers, Asunción’s family was able to receive the fuel-efficient cookstove they desperately needed. Their new stove emits significantly less smoke, giving their tired eyes a relief. Furthermore, their fuel-efficient stove means less trips to carry heavy firewood and freedom from the frustration of a fire that will not stay lit.

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Doña Maria Josefina Atz Tun

San Martín Jilotepeque, Guatemala

March, 2021

Doña Maria Josefina is 47 years old and lives with her husband and 10 children in the remote area of Chi Don Juan, in San Martín Jilotepeque, Guatemala. Our local team built her a cookstove last fall, and we visited her house last week as part of our regular follow-up schedule.

Doña Maria helps manage a cooperative in her area that empowers local women to resist domestic violence and improve their lives and communities. They coordinate to bring education and opportunities to their community, and they lead local governance, safety efforts, and collaborative projects with their municipality.

Doña Maria absolutely loves her Justa cookstove. She has been advocating for the adoption of the stove throughout her community, and we visited several houses with her to meet other women and talk about the benefits of the stove.

“I can’t read or write but I can communicate with the members of the community and make sure they are using their Estufa Justa. I adore my stove and use it for everything - morning, midday and night.”

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Elida olivas

Elida Olivas is the owner of StoveTeam’s partner factory Avanza in Nicaragua. She purchased the factory from its original owners in 2019. This is the story of how Elida came to own the factory, in her own words (translated from Spanish).

One day I decided to leave my community and start working, no matter what the job would be. I still wanted to study and I heard about classes and in an organization called ANIESCA. They needed a dance instructor and they hired me part-time and they paid me 1,000 córdobas ($28 USD) per month. Over half of the money went to pay for rent and food but I saved what I could for university. After a year I was promoted and began taking care of correspondence with 700 sponsored children with limited economic resources. I loved the job because I had been through the same situation. They did not pay me much, but I was able to help others while saving money to study.

We started looking for land to build the factory, which was quite difficult, but we managed to get it. Dave sent me the money, I bought the land, and we began building the factory. I knew Dave was taking a risk and not knowing if this business was going to be profitable or not. In May 2016, I left my job to start working with Friends of Families United full time. I was worried because nobody in the area knew about [StoveTeam’s Ecocina cookstove] yet, so I was going to have to promote it. I had left my job for a new business that might not work out, and I didn’t know if they would pay me a good salary since I had a 5-year-old son to feed. But I took the risk. 

On June 13, 2016, Doña Nancy (founder of StoveTeam International) came to Nicaragua with a group of volunteers, and they presented us with the project.

Anibal Murcia (from StoveTeam’s partner factory E’Copan in Honduras) also came to show us how to build the stoves. They bought us equipment and we signed a contract with Friends of Families United. We spent 5 months with no sales, waiting to legalize the business, but I took that time to promote the stoves. It was a complete success in Estelí! People liked the stoves and they started to order them!

In September of 2018, the factory manager was removed due to problems and I ran the factory for the following year. I began to direct and organize everything, and I tightened up operations. My husband had a job with a company that made rings for cigars, but they cut staff in October and he couldn’t find another job due to Nicaragua’s economic situation. I asked him if he would drive our factory’s delivery truck because I felt that I could not handle so many responsibilities, and he helped me without receiving a salary. When he found a job in 2019, I felt so happy because it would finally be a steady income for our family, and I thought about resigning from the factory because I felt so exhausted, but Dave told me that the factory probably couldn’t go on without me. 

It was then that I found out Friends of Families United had decided to officially make me the new owner of the factory. I had no words, I was so excited and thankful that God was giving me back all the effort I had put in by letting me own my own business. 

It currently costs me $500 USD per month to run the factory, for the next year and a half this money is given to a group of 16 women here in Nicaragua formed by Friends of Families United.

I have to work very hard but I thank God that I am creating my own business. I know that with the support of StoveTeam International our factory will get ahead. I am so grateful because ever since I have been with the factory, StoveTeam has never stopped supporting us.

These are the experiences that I had to go through to get to where I am today, it has cost me a lot, but all my suffering was worth it. I‘m thankful for David and the entire team of Friends of Families United for having confidence in me and selling me the factory, and I look forward to continuing my partnership with StoveTeam International. Even though I have only owned the factory for five months, I do it with transparency and enthusiasm to help others, and I will continue to do so.

Elida Olivas

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Victor

As a young boy Victor never had any hopes or dreams for a career. His parents worked by selling trinkets in the marketplace, and as soon as he was old enough he worked too. Because of his work, he never had a chance to go to school. The jobs he did over the years varied, but they all provided little pay. At age 18 he became a father, and soon three more children followed. In order to make ends meet, he began working as a tree climber to cut down coconuts. It was an incredibly dangerous job, but it mostly paid the bills.

One of his coworkers had a brother who worked at Gustavo’s factory. This brother had fallen ill and couldn’t work, so his coworker wanted to know if he would fill in for him for a little while. He gladly took his place and worked hard, hoping that maybe the temporary gig could turn into something more permanent. Eventually the person he had replaced came back, but the factory kept him on because of his strong work ethic and interest in the job. Before long Victor had worked his way up to become a welder, the most skilled position at the factory.

“This job has changed my life and the future for my children,” he said. “I may never have had the opportunity to go to school, but all four of my children are now in school. Because of this job, they will be able to finish school and have a career.”

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Miriam

“How did you stand the fire?” Susan asked.

“I had to,” Miriam replied, “I depended on it. It was a great joy the day you came.”

Initially, the factory had asked Miriam to pay a small portion of the cost of the stove, but Miriam explained that she didn’t have any money. She said the following about what had happened next, “The true blessing came, someone had paid for my stove in full!”

“The open fire was unbearable. I would get head and neck pain. Even in the short time I’ve had this stove, I have felt so much better!”

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Gustavo

“When I finished high school, I became involved in a movement called Catholic Action. Our job was to get aid to the needy, but at that time any person involved in humanitarian aid was accused of being a communist so I was hunted by the death squads.

My mother gave me money to illegally travel to Los Angeles, California. I found work there for several years until I was discovered and deported back to El Salvador. On my return I found that many of my friends had disappeared and I was still in danger.

I was home only 3 months and then went to Montreal, Canada where I worked until 1980.

In 1980 I returned to El Salvador and was married in 1981. I have three children, the eldest is a dentist, the second lives in North Carolina and the third wants to go to college in the United States to study architecture.

One day I met Larry Winiarski, a stove designer who was experimenting with fuel-efficient wood burning cookstoves in Central America.

One day Larry told me, “Gustavo, Nancy Hughes wants me to help with a small pilot project, so I’ll stay a few days at your home to see what we can do.” Larry began to purchase materials and with the tools that he had brought from the United States, we made a short list of materials and started working on the development of the first Ecocina.

Our workshop was only three and a half meters long and two meters wide. After three days Larry asked me to hire one more person to help us, and we hired Salvador, who has been with us ever since. Larry, working slowly but surely, started to make some drawings and a few mathematical equations and built the Ecocina.

Whenever we needed some money, there was Nancy as a guardian angel protecting us and giving us strength to continue with the design. After almost three weeks the Ecocina first saw the light and has since evolved from a stove with a metal body to one of ferro-cement.

Nancy was so excited by the project that in November 2007 she decided to come to El Salvador and meet me personally. From that time Nancy has been, with all of the members of Stove Team International, the pillar that has sustained the dream of continuing to help all of the families using fuel-wood for cooking.

We stopped producing the metal stove because the cost of metal was not stable. Don Steely and I began designing the mold for Ecocina that we are currently producing. Nancy and a group of volunteers gave us the biggest boost in February 2008 by helping build a roof, a wall of more than 25 meters long and 3 meters high.

Don worked for months looking for the best way to produce the Ecocina on a larger scale, and after several months of trial and error, I managed something even Don thought could not be achieved. With the help and ideas from different sources, and especially from Don, we managed to design a uniform mold with which we can make a very strong single-piece stove.

I have helped with building the factories in Guatemala and Honduras. With the help of Rotary matching grants and Rotary Clubs in different locations, we’ve been able to provide direct support as well as training at our factory in El Salvador

Creating jobs and become self-sustaining has been a priority since the start of StoveTeam. For example, I have a boy who cannot read or write. As a boy he had lost an eye. Guadeloupe can barely read, and if StoveTeam International had not brought help to set up this factory these people would be unemployed. Their lack of education does not allow them to get decent and dignified work, and here we are all very grateful because it has changed the lives of all of us.

Before Nancy and StoveTeam International, I had no hope that my son would be a better professional. More than this, Nancy and her volunteer friends have helped my son and my family with medical equipment and so he can work on his own. You can see how life has changed us, and we are all eternally grateful.”

Gustavo Peña, Owner, Inversiones Falcón stove factory in El Salvador

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Irma

This is how Nancy tells it:

“I was working as a volunteer in Central America in the kitchen of Cascade Medical Team when 18-year old Irma asked if we could delay dinner so she could thank us. Speaking Kechiquel through double interpreters, she explained she had fallen into an open cooking fire in her family’s home at the age of two. Her hands were burned so badly she couldn’t open them.

For 16 years she had prayed for a miracle. Our volunteer surgeon restored the use of her hands. We were her miracle. To prevent this kind of tragedy, here’s what we did.

I decided we needed to prevent burns rather than treat them, so on my return to Eugene I approached my Rotary club and said, “Someone should write a grant for safe, fuel-efficient stoves.”

Our director of World Community Service looked me directly in the eye and said, “Yes, someone should!” That was the very beginning. I wrote a small grant, the first I had ever written. The next December, with the help of three volunteer stove designers and funding from two foundations, we developed the Ecocina stove to prevent such tragedies. The Ecocina is environmentally friendly, economical, cool to the touch, reduces the amount of wood by up to half and reduces carbon emissions and particulate matter by 70%. It emits almost no smoke, requires no chimney, is portable and is produced locally. We feel it is its own miracle.”

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Edgar

In a small community just outside San Miguel de Allende called Las Guias, lives a family of the same name in a one-room house. The family comprises of a grandmother, mother and father, and their two sons, Edgar, 13 (at right in red jacket) and Israel, 11. Edgar suffers from Guillain-Barre disease and has had a tracheotomy performed.

The family was in need of help in order to make the house safe and life a little more comfortable, especially for Edgar with his health condition. In addition to other items given to the family, the Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende Midday provided an Ecocina Stove.

Prior to receiving the stove, Edgar’s mother cooked on an open fire in close proximity to the house and this further endangered Edgar’s health. The little Ecocina Stove has had a significant positive impact on the family, not only in the reduction of harmful smoke emissions from open fire but also in the cost savings in the amount of wood required for cooking by the family.

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María Mercedes Lopez

In March of 2020, while StoveTeam’s Guatemala partner factory was closed due to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak, StoveTeam’s International Program Coordinator Alex Eaton began taking long walks and meeting the locals. Here is how he tells the story of María Mercedes Lopez.

A few days back, I walked to San Antonio Aguascalientes, which is 1.5 miles from my town or a half-hour walk. I am the “nuevo vecino” (new neighbor) as I have been called and thus, want to learn more about my surroundings. I have found the best way to get to know a place is walking and wandering, or ‘community mapping’ in Peace Corps lingo. I greet every person who passes, “buenos días” or “adiós” (common greetings of the area). I arrived in San Antonio and explored the central park with a beautifully painted pila for public clothes washing and discovered the closest official supermarket, Bodegona. 

As I noticed the sun falling in the sky, I made a u-turn and headed the same road home to solidify the new route in my mental compass. I met a beautiful señorita sitting on the roadside, collecting and bundling wood. Her name was María Mercedes Lopez. I was wearing shorts and Birkenstocks, and knew that I stood out like a sore thumb, but introduced myself and asked her some questions. She told me that she visits the same spot three times a week to collect firewood to feed the open fire she uses to cook.

I told her about StoveTeam, and how the local stove factory EcoComal works to reach people in the community just like her. She was so delighted and asked, “How much does a stove cost?” I replied, “600 quetzales for an Ecocina ($80)” and she said, “I live off 80 quetzales a week ($11) from selling peaches.” She told me, as tears ran down her face, that her husband had left her ten years ago for a more beautiful, and younger woman, and that she passes her days alone. 

I asked about the peaches, and where they come from. She told me: “I buy peaches from Doña Lucia who walks four hours by foot, while carrying a basket of peaches on her head because there’s no public transport at the moment.” This is due to government restrictions regarding coronavirus.

María sells peaches in the San Antonio Mercado on Monday’s for the going rate of 10 peaches for 12 quetzales ($1.57) in the morning. If her stock doesn’t sell, she lowers the price to 10 peaches for 8 quetzales ($1) in the afternoon. With her sales she buys beans and rice for the remainder of the week. On market day she repeats, “Quién quiere duraznos?” (who wants peaches?) and by the evening she says she is very tired.

A side-story on Señorita María relates to her wood-gathering friend Lucia. As I approached the two, both sized me up and Lucia shared her thoughts, “be careful of tall white people who want to take your picture”. I replied, “I am not a tourist; I will be staying in the next village for a long time.” Señorita María grumbled, “She talks badly of tourists, saying they brought viruses to Guatemala, but really the tourists bring money to the economy.” As it got darker, I started walking and Señorita María gave me her address and said, “I want to invite you to lunch at my house!”

Locals are full of life, and joy and want people to listen, and thus, I enjoy connecting with them - I am looking forward to lunch and seeing the smile on her face when we can install an Ecocina cookstove in her kitchen.

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Anibal

(translated from Spanish)

I come from a poor but very honorable family. I have 5 siblings and my mother lives with me because my father died when I was 5 years old. Thus I have had to strive a lot in order to progress.

Until a year ago, my income had always been generated by my salaries of public and private organizations.

My financial load grew to unmanageable levels when I built my house and started a farm to grow profitable crops (chili and tomato). Because of this situation and because of the high unemployment in my country, I was looking for a way to keep my farm while managing my financial commitments.

At that moment in my life, when it seemed impossible to continue, I met Nancy Hughes to whom I owe my current familial and economical situation. For she—and her organization StoveTeam—gave me the possibility of establishing a micro company for the fabrication of ecological stoves (Ecocinas), which has resulted in my current opportunities:

• I have my own source of employment.

• I work every day with my family.

• What I do has been a personal passion from years past: protect the environment.

• I provide employment to 5 families from the region.

• I contribute to the health and the economy of our people.

Encountering Nancy has been life-changing for me and my family. The importance of her help—for me and other families—is that it has not consisted in temporary giveaways, but instead StoveTeam has helped me become a sustainable micro entrepreneur by providing me with capital, technical and financial help.

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Roxana

Throughout her childhood, Roxana struggled to breathe. She suffered from asthma and chronic bronchitis and sinus problems. It never seemed to get better, but it definitely worsened around her family’s smoky open cooking fire inside their home. She frequently missed school and was eventually held back a year due to her illness. A doctor confirmed that her constant exposure to smoke was aggravating her health problems, and had possibly caused them in the first place.

When Roxana was 17, a community outreach worker from the Village Network came to her village in El Salvador and approached her family about purchasing a fuel-efficient Ecocina stove. The worker told them that the stove would eliminate the smoke in their home and reduce the air pollution that had bothered Roxana for so many years. The family bought a stove on the spot.

The change was dramatic. Her health improved almost immediately and soon she was able to return to school. She worked diligently to make up the year of school she had missed, and she is now set to graduate from high school on time with her class. The fuel-efficient stove has also saved their family money; they used to spend $10 at a time on firewood and now spend just $2.

Roxana and her mother, Julissa, traveled half a day to provide feedback about the stove at a recent stakeholder meeting hosted by the El Salvador factory. The Ecocina stove has changed their lives.

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Betty

Betty was the first woman hired at the factory in El Salvador. She is a single mother living in a squatter’s camp beside the river. She saw the Ecocina and was afraid she would not be on the list to receive one. She took the bus to the factory and asked if she could learn how the stove was made. She worked for two days and returned a month later asking for a permanent job. She wants to be sure every woman in her area receives a stove. She and her friend Ana were employed producing Ecocina stoves for El Salvador. Her smile is its own reward.

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Marco Tulio

(translated from Spanish)

In August, 2007, I stopped working for an NGO and soon I was among the thousands of unemployed people in Guatemala with the responsibility of supporting my wife Ana Luisa, and my three children. I started looking for other work but it was not easy to find another job.

After a lot of searching I found some friends and NGO managers who encouraged me to develop a prototype stove to support the families they helped in Guatemala. With capital of Q600.00 ($75.00), I bought four large bricks, sand, pumice, a metal barrel and a few pieces of iron. My tool were a jig that needed repair and an old drill that I already had. With some paper and a pencil, I started to design a stove.

I called my design the ECOCOMAL. The design was approved and I received 100% payment for five stoves. With these funds I had enough to buy enough materials for six stoves, so I could sell the extra to another buyer.

Then I had a job and had formed the company ECOCOMAL SA. In 2008, Nancy Hughes visited me at my home and factory, since the factory was in a corridor of my house.
Nancy asked if we could help produce the new Ecocina stoves designed by StoveTeam. At that time I already had two models of stoves, and I asked if there was any problem with that, since I always wanted to give my customers a choice of stoves.

Nancy told me she was fine with me having other designs if the Ecocinas were produced as well. It was a challenge for me and gave me an idea about the way to strengthen the construction of stoves.

Thanks to this support, I started looking for a place to work that was roofed. Then Nancy came with a group of StoveTeam volunteers who helped build a new roof and some desks. Next, my friend William offered to lend me money to buy land and to get a better setup for the factory.

StoveTeam helped me find buyers and the business has grown. We currently have 11 employees on salary, which has produced the dream of a stove factory in Guatemala. Our factory has manufactured and sold more than 8,500 stoves and I now have the dream of starting many other factories in other regions of Guatemala to keep up with demand.

God bless StoveTeam and all the friends who have helped me to provide support for my family and 10 other families.

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Augustina

When Juan Carlos Onoñez (from the EcoComal stove factory in Guatemala) delivered a stove to the home of Augustina Lopez Lopez, he found that she had been cooking for her daughter and granddaughter over an open fire inside their home all their lives.

Augustina, her daughter Jessica Roxana Lopez Lopez, and granddaughter, Tania Yajaira Guadalupe Lopez Lopez (plus the cat) survive by weaving traditional cloth in a barren cinderblock room with walls blackened by smoke from the daily fires over which they had been cooking.

As of that day, their lives were changed forever by the gift of a clean, efficient cookstove that meant they no longer had to fear for their health.

This family of 3 is smaller than most in the area (the average is 7.5) but the benefits of their new stove reach deeply into each of their lives. Augustina and her daughter Jessica no longer have to worry about the health of their eyes and lungs due to smoke, and they will be spending half as much money on wood for the fire. Augustina's granddaughter Tania is no longer at risk of burns from falling in an open fire, and she is more likely to complete a good education now that she is less likely to have to help collect firewood and assist with medical conditions resulting from the smoke.

The photo above of Tania Yajaira Guadalupe Lopez Lopez and her cat became one of National Geographic’s best 100 photos of 2017.

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Jordan

Jordan was a graduate student in engineering at Oregon State University whose life was changed by a StoveTeam volunteer trip.

During my graduate degree in engineering I was able to work with StoveTeam both at a local facility in the US, and on an international trip to Guatemala. In Guatemala we worked with local business owners to help build cookstoves, gather research about their customers, and deliver instrumented cookstoves to better understand people’s cooking habits. I had worked in developing countries before, but StoveTeam was a different experience because it’s structure empowers local business owners to help them see change in their communities.

Because of my involvement with StoveTeam I changed directions on my graduate program to incorporate more work on sustainability in energy systems and renewable energy. Energy poverty is something I am very passionate about and StoveTeam international helped me to better understand ways I could get involved through volunteering and my career.

Jordan is currently working on his postdoc at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory with an emphasis on grid integration for variable renewable resources.

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Blanca Nieves

Blanca Nieves lives with her husband and two children in rural Nicaragua. She was named after the fairytale character Snow White. Before receiving her stove, Blanca spent all day at home, cooking with her daughter while her husband worked and her son went to school. She had very little opportunity to work outside the home. Her eyes watered all the time from the smoke and often read about women in the area suffering from lung disease as a result of cooking tortillas.

"This stove is a blessing, many people tend to not value what they have and I give thanks to God for my stove," she said. “For my life it is a blessing that you all brought the plancha [a special cooktop for making tortillas]."

"It was not something I ever expected to have and I thank you with all of my heart."

Before she received her stove, Blanca noticed she was using three times as much wood as her mother, who had already started using a clean cookstove. Using the money she saves on wood, she plans to invest in her children’s education because as she says, “they’re on their way up, they are the future."

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Veronica

Veronica Sanchez, a young woman who lives with her five-year-old daughter Alejandra in El Tigre, Mexico, received an Ecocina in March while her husband was working in the U.S.  She went to visit her mother who lives some distance away and took the portable Ecocina stove with her. While visiting, she cooked with her mother on the Ecocina to show her how it worked. Her Mom liked it so much she asked her to please leave the stove there, but Veronica said, "No, this is my stove, and you'll just need to buy your own!  I can't do without it."

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