Solar Cooker

Men and women of the villages working with Mozda Collective on soil and water conservation have been meeting monthly to discuss holistic development issues they face.  In 2007 some youth were interested in harvesting solar energy in the villages and signed up for training in making solar parabolic cookers, based on the Scheffler reflector model, for village use. 

AID supported training and material costs for the group to make 3 such reflectors which villagers would test, to see how well they worked and how well they could adapt local cooking patterns to the solar way of cooking. Heike Hoedt, who has provided trainings for making the Scheffler reflectors in many countries, provided the local training without charge.

If people can use these cookers, they will realize some important benefits.  These cookers emit no fumes or carbons while cooking. Replacing fuelwood with harvested solar energy helps to conserve the forest and the time & energy women spend collecting fuelwood.  Being made locally, they will generate local livelihood, and families will be able to maintain them more easily and reliably than similar ones imported from outside the village. 

AID works with Bombay Sarvodaya Friendship Center and Mozda Collective on soil and water conservation, and alternate energy.