Solar Oven Project to Help Haiti

by Rachel Skytta, KDLT Reporter, Sioux Falls, SD

A Haiti mission project with a fourteen year history in South and North Dakota is making a difference in the lives of people more than two thousand miles away.

The Haiti Solar Oven Partners Project works to teach the people of Haiti how to build, operate, and cook with a solar oven.

Hatians invest a small portion of their income into the oven. A project volunteer said the project continues to receive positive feedback.

The ovens are constructed in a South Dakota workshop, then they're either shipped or delivered to families in Haiti. The people of Haiti rely primarily on burning charcoal to cook their food. However, this can lead to lung damage and may contaminate drinking water. That's why project director Rick Jost says the solar oven is a cost effective, and safe alternative to charcoal.

"It's estimated, as of now, that they spend twenty five percent of their meager income on charcoal," said Jost.

"When they take those ovens home...the smiles on their faces. Some of them walk miles to come to these seminars," said Connie Smith, a project volunteer.

The oven works like a slow cooker, getting up to a maximum of 325 degrees farenheit. It takes two to three hours too cook most food. The only downside is, what happens when it gets cloudy.

"Sunshine is so abundant in Haiti," said Jost.

Jost is right. The sun shines nearly seventy five percent of the time in Haiti. Making it an ideal place to utilize the solar oven. However, those receiving the ovens are gaining more than just a hot meal.

"They know someone else cares about what's happening to them and wants to make a difference for them," said Smith.

That seems to be the message behind the project. To simply help make a difference.

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Haitians to say thanks for solar ovens

By Carly Crane, Bismarck Tribune, Bismarck, Noth Dakota

Haiti Solar Oven Partners will be travelling the state with its Haitian leaders Montas Joseph and Raymonde Joseph to spread the word about solar-powered ovens utilized in the poverty-stricken nation of Haiti, and to bolster potential volunteers for the cause.

Montas Joseph, Haitian director of HSOP, and Raymonde Joseph, HSOP training director, will visit 29 United Methodist churches in the North Dakota and South Dakota throughout September.

The Haitian representatives will be in Bismarck for a luncheon and informational session from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 15 at the McCabe United Methodist Church, 1030 N. Sixth St. The luncheon is free and open to the public. Freewill offerings will be accepted.

“(The Josephs) have traveled from Haiti to thank the churches and congregations for their support in the Haiti Solar Oven Partners’s cause,” said Karen Workman, HSOP advisory board member.

The Haiti Solar Oven Partners, a mission of the Dakotas Conference of the United Methodist Church, has been producing parts for solar-powered ovens to Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, in North Dakota and South Dakota since 1999.

Hundreds of volunteers craft and package solar oven parts en route to Haiti in workshops located in Volga, S.D., and Moffit.

Each solar oven costs $125. Donations from individuals and churches cover most of the costs.

Teams of volunteers also travel with HSOP to Haiti each year to work with Haitians to complete the construction of the ovens and to educate people about solar cooking under the direction of the Josephs.

Workman said the entire mission is volunteer-driven and that it’s important to thank participating congregations and churches, and to appeal to donors or people who want to support the project.

The ovens, which can reach an interior temperature of 360 to 370 degrees, can be used for cooking, baking, purifying water and pasteurizing milk. They prove to be a valuable and environmentally friendly home appliance in a nation plagued by poverty and extensive deforestation, largely due to the widespread use of charcoal as a fuel source.

If the weather permits, Raymonde Joseph will give a solar cooking presentation to volunteers at a workshop in Moffit Sept. 14.

HSOP has shipped about 7,000 ovens over its 14 years as a mission. It is shipping approximately 1,000 solar ovens annually. However, because of increasing demand and acceptance of solar-powered cooking, HSOP’s partners in Haiti have asked the project to double this year’s shipment to 2,280 ovens.

HSOP is experiencing an “expansion phase,” Workman said, and preparing itself by recruiting more volunteers to meet the growing demand for solar ovens.

The Josephs will be “calling for volunteers,” Workman said. “The emphasis (of the mission) right now is doubling the number of ovens,” produced by the Dakota-based mission.

Workman said a shipment of 1,140 ovens went out to Haiti in mid-July, and the mission plans to have another batch shipped by December.

“We are really, really trying to meet this year’s goal of 2,280 solar ovens,” she said.

For more information on the luncheon in Bismarck, contact Karen Workman at 701-250-9379. For more information on the Haiti Solar Oven Partners’ cause, contact the director Rick Jost at 605-692-3391 or visit www.haitisolarovens.org.