Dear List members,
I am working on a project in Haiti to design and build clean burning cook stoves and small scale distilleries, in order to help build a sustainable alcohol fuel economy for families in Haiti. I have been working on this for some while as a consultant and a Senior Fellow with the Public Private Alliance Foundation (www.ppafoundation.org). Our list group usually focuses on Electric boats I am writing to invite you to get involved in an important project where your support could really make a difference.
The project's aim is to help Haitians exit the poverty-respiratory disease-deforestation trap that their dependence on cooking with charcoal represents. We seek to reduce the demand for charcoal (that has led to 98% deforestation of the country), ensure farmers a better market for their sugarcane and other crops, create jobs for both men and women through making and selling cookstoves and fuel, and establishing small-scale distilleries with community groups nation wide.
How YOU can help.
Financial support -- We are raising funds for the initial manufacture of simple, cheap ethanol-burning stoves. These will be made in Haiti by a Haitian firm that is already successful in making and selling other varieties of cookstoves. For more information and to make a donation, please visit www.gofundme.com/safe-cooking-in-Haiti .
I will travel to Haiti at the end of September to work with colleagues and Haitian counterparts to test and begin manufacture of the ethanol cookstove prototype, and to verify acceptability and efficiency of the stoves in comparison with charcoal stoves. Also I will review the proposed site for a pilot small scale distillery, at a technical school close to the stove factory. The ethanol produced from this pilot plant will supply a small group of users for testing. After the piloting we intend that the school will serve as the training center to educate young women and men as brew masters, distillery technicians and sales people. We will also reach out to farmers in relation to feedstock issues.
The collaborating Haitian company is a social enterprise. A portion of sales will be retained by the distributors, mainly women, and the rest returned to the manufacturer to enable more production and additional project development.
On behalf of the project team, I thank you for your generous support and for your continued contributions to this forum. Keep in mind that together we can all make a difference – in our own lives and in the lives of millions of others less fortunate. Thank you.
Your Ethoholic Friend,
TomS
Posted by: tomsetchel@gmail.com
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