Miriam
Miriam’s nephew would often tell her to pray for an improved cookstove because he knew how much it would improve her life. But a disability had left her unable to walk, so she could not afford to buy one. StoveTeam’s Nicaragua factory partner Avanza donated an Ecocina cookstove to Miriam and her family, and soon after a volunteer named Susan stopped by her house to see how she was doing.
Susan asked Miriam how she had felt with her open fire and she said, “It was a burden. No one could enter the kitchen, you couldn’t even see anything with so much smoke.”
“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!”
Miriam’s new walls and roof, thanks to the StoveTeam partner factory Avanza!
The factory came to visit her again and noticed that she had holes in her roof. She would have to cover the tortillas she made to protect them from dirty water leaking through. Workers from the factory Avanza fixed her roof and even took time to level the floor. Several families contributed funds to help with the effort.
“I enjoyed my first dry winter.” Miriam said, “It’s a big difference in fuel savings. Every time I went to light my fire, I would use two bundles of wood, which were about 25 pieces each, and now I can cook with just 20 small pieces of wood.”