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Rocket Stove

Dona Justa Nunez, a strong-willed matriarch in Suyapa, Honduras, keeps a burnt, blackened cooking pot as a reminder of her old life. “If that’s what my pot was like, what must my lungs have been like!” she exclaims. More than 150,000 Central Americans like Justa are healthier and more prosperous after sparking a revolution out of their own kitchens by partnering with a groundbreaking Fort Collins nonprofit organization.

Trees, Water & People (TWP) was founded in 1998 by Stuart Conway and Richard Fox. It develops and manages community reforestation, watershed protection, renewable energy, environmental education, and carbon offset programs in countries including Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti and the United States.

TWP has introduced thousands of women in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Haiti to new, energy-efficient and safer cook stoves, freeing them from cooking with old, open-fire stoves while inhaling the equivalent of two packs of cigarette smoke a day.

Specifically, TWP has coordinated the building of more than 30,000 fuel-efficient cook stoves across Central America. One revolutionary stove, the Justa, was actually named after Dona Justa Nunez, the Honduran mother of six, who helped design the stove after she joked with American technicians that she could do a better job. Now her jest has radically transformed the livelihood of women across her region.

The Justa stove is 70 percent more efficient than old stoves, requiring less firewood while venting harmful smoke out of a chimney. “For me, this is wonderful,” says Justa. “It also helps other families. I’ve noticed the improvements and seen the changes here. We thank God for these people who’ve made the arrival of stoves possible in Honduras.”

TWP Co-founder and International Director Stuart Conway is the driving force behind the stoves program. He and his wife, Jenny, served in the Peace Corps in Guatemala for three years. For 25 years, they’ve returned to Central America several times each year to help small communities grow trees and protect their watersheds.

“As a forester, my first motivation at TWP was to plant trees in the region and save the forests. More than 65 percent of Central Americas’ forests have been destroyed over the past 30 years, and TWP has planted close to three million trees in the region.”

But when Conway got to know women like Justa who were suffering from asthma, lung cancer, eye ailments and burns, his vision expanded even further. “Imagine cooking in a smoky room for up to six hours a day. That’s the reality for millions of women around the world — cooking with children at their feet. Every 20 seconds in the world, someone dies from indoor air pollution. It’s the number one killer of children under five. Few people here realize that. When women started telling me of the health benefits from their new stoves, I became a stove fanatic. My work’s even more gratifying now.”

TWP and the Aprovecho Research Center have developed several types of fuel-efficient stoves and launched local factories that build the stoves out of cheap, easily accessible materials. TWP has also created tree nurseries, improved watersheds, and promoted renewable energy in Central America and the United States, all the time hiring local people. TWP is the only nonprofit with a dual mission of reforesting and retooling cook stoves.

For more than 10 years, TWP has quietly been at the leading edge of global development work, but now is increasingly taking center stage in the worldwide humanitarian community. In 2005, Prince Charles presented Conway with the prestigious Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy, known as the Green Oscar. Conway’s work was also recognized on National Geographic’s television series Earth Pulse — Heroes of the Planet and on PBS’s e-Town.

Recently, TWP received the prestigious $1 million Rio Tinto Prize for Sustainability. Conway was delighted to accept the Prize at the 2009 International Economic Forum of the Americas (Conference de Montreal) in Montreal on June 9.

“We’re delighted about and absolutely thankful for this recognition. We now have the opportunity to expand our community reforestation, open more nurseries, plant more trees, distribute more cook stoves and employ more people.”

Rio Tinto Global Head of Health, Safety & Environment Elaine Dorward-King said the Rio Tinto Prize for Sustainability was designed to recognize and reward not-for-profit, civil society and non-government organizations (NGOs) for significant contributions to the goals of economic, environmental and social sustainability.

“We congratulate Trees, Water & People co-founders Stuart Conway and Richard Fox, employees and all Trees, Water & People partner organizations and networks on being awarded the 2008 Prize. To win this international award is a real achievement and testament to the work that Trees, Water & People is doing on the ground to balance today’s needs with those of future generations,” she said.

TWP partners with Central American NGOs including: Honduran Association for Development (AHDESA) in Honduras, PROLEÑA in Nicaragua, Arboles y Agua para el Pueblo in El Salvador, and Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team (AMURT) in Haiti.

More information about Trees, Water & People can be found at: www.treeswaterpeople.org.

A six-time author, freelance journalist and former manager at Engineers Without Borders, Susan Skog’s newest book is The Give-Back Solution: Create a Better World with Your Time, Talents and Travel. www.susanskog.com