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."