STOVETEAM’S GUATEMALA COUNTRY DIRECTOR IS CURRENTLY IN NICARAGUA. READ HIS UPDATES FROM THE FIELD TO SEE HOW WE ARE PUTTING DONATIONS TO WORK IN CENTRAL AMERICA.

Written by Alex Eaton

Elida Olivas, Owner and Operator of the Avanza factory, with brightly colored Ecocina cookstoves.

Greetings from Esteli, Nicaragua where I would like to share the news that lots of exciting things are happening in Central America. I am here working with our factory partners Elida and Nelson of the Avanza factory working through a list of program tasks that have been on the to-do list for some time including a hint of business development to make sure that Elida’s factory is on track for sustainable and efficient growth. This year, the Avanza factory has installed 418 fuel-efficient cookstoves in homes, 121 Ecocinas, and 297 of the larger Justa cookstoves. That is 418 families and small business owners who no longer have to breathe toxic smoke to cook their daily family meals or earn their living. I have also been gathering the best details from the field to help prepare a grant application that we hope will fund improved factory conditions to ensure safety and efficiency for workers. In addition, I supervised a KPT (Kitchen Performance Test) in Santa Maria de Pantasma in the upper north of Nicaragua with a grouping of 10 households with 10 new Justa Stoves and 10 traditional open fires. The results are always shocking in comparison to see that open fire families use such a heavy load of wood. All families were excited for our daily visits especially because we gifted wood and asked them to use that quantity for a normal day’s cooking. These families are amazed to learn that with an improved stove, they can save at least 50% on their fuel needs. Field studies are always fun and logistically challenging, but they provide important information for us to evaluate the fuel-use of a community before and after adopting a fuel-efficient stove so that we can best understand and evaluate our impact.

Nelson Olivas of the Avanza factory weighing wood for KPT’s in Santa Maria de Pantasma, Nicaragua.

Enough about Nicaragua - the home front in Guatemala is also gliding smoothly along under the watchful eye of Waleska Santos and our core Guatemalan team. Waleska is a native Antiguan and thanks to the support of Christadelphian Meal-A-Day Fund (CMADF) we were able to bring Waleska onto the team where she has worked closely as my right hand through all these months of training stovebuilders and installing and evaluating the adoption of the Justa stove in diverse communities. We are happy to report that Waleska was recently promoted to Guatemala Operations Director and is now the woman on the ground who has grown into a trusted manager of the program. This frees up my time to develop more community projects in Guatemala but also to travel and support our projects in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Waleska and the core Guatemalan team are currently placing stoves in Retalhuleu, Totonicapan, Nueva Santa Rosa, and the Antigua surroundings! Every community is different but we are pressing ahead with the intent of growth. Field life is always challenging — but I love finding the solutions to the ever present bumps in the road that arise!