Saving Trees… Protecting Health and Budgets for 100 Families to Date
Previously a shade-coffee production region, over the past two decades our mountains have lost the majority of their trees. (a). The consequences of the resulting degradation are many: scarcity of firewood for cooking, landslides, loss of potable water that would have infiltrated the soil but now runs off the surface, soil fertility decline, and increasingly frequent fires.
Remnants of degraded forests and roadside trees are the only local source of firewood for families who continue their tradition of cooking meals over wood (b). But in peri-urban communities like San Caralampio, there is no firewood at all and families are obliged to buy firewood, costing them up to 15% of their monthly incomes.
Almost all families use a traditional open fire for cooking (c), left burning all day, generating large quantities of harmful smoke and consuming firewood at a rapid clip. The Inkawasi eco-efficient, smokeless stove (d), introduced to LTI by Peace Corps collaborators in 2016, uses 60% less wood, saving many trees per stove per year (e). Amost all smoke is eliminated from the kitchen, a huge health benefit to the family.
To date we have built 100 Inkawasi stoves in four of our most remote communities, all along the ridgetop protecting the crucial Sub-Watershed III of the capital city, Managua (f). The beneficiary families have enthusiastically embraced their new stoves, having been educated first individually on its benefits and their own contributions (base, roof, and simple, freely obtained materials) before signing on to receive it (g). Local masons were trained to build the Inkawasi, and have been rewarded with work over the past 2 years, another benefit and installed skill kept within the communities (h).
Inkawasi Firewood-efficient Cooking Stoves
Saving Trees… Protecting Health and Budgets for 100 Families to Date
Previously a shade-coffee production region, over the past two decades our mountains have lost the majority of their trees. (a). The consequences of the resulting degradation are many: scarcity of firewood for cooking, landslides, loss of potable water that would have infiltrated the soil but now runs off the surface, soil fertility decline, and increasingly frequent fires.
Remnants of degraded forests and roadside trees are the only local source of firewood for families who continue their tradition of cooking meals over wood (b).
But in peri-urban communities like San Caralampio, there is no firewood at all and families are obliged to buy firewood, costing them up to 15% of their monthly incomes.
Almost all families use a traditional open fire for cooking (c), left burning all day, generating large quantities of harmful smoke and consuming firewood at a rapid clip. The Inkawasi eco-efficient, smokeless stove (d), introduced to LTI by Peace Corps collaborators in 2016, uses 60% less wood, saving many trees per stove per year (e). Amost all smoke is eliminated from the kitchen, a huge health benefit to the family.
To date we have built 100 Inkawasi stoves in four of our most remote communities, all along the ridgetop protecting the crucial Sub-Watershed III of the capital city, Managua (f). The beneficiary families have enthusiastically embraced their new stoves, having been educated first individually on its benefits and their own contributions (base, roof, and simple, freely obtained materials) before signing on to receive it (g). Local masons were trained to build the Inkawasi, and have been rewarded with work over the past 2 years, another benefit and installed skill kept within the communities (h).