Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
...there are simple solar cookers made of cardboard and aluminum foil ....The
situation, then, is this:Since the villagers do not know of these possibilities
they will not list them when they are asked to name their needs.
Is the development agency acting improperly when it looks to make the
community leaders aware of these possibilities? Doing so, of course, can be
called an attempt by the outsider to change the community's agenda.
Good point. You may be interested to know what happened with CAWDnet and
solar cooking.
- It started with Graham Knight (of biodesign - the "DIY" or "pocket "
solar mentioned by Taran). - Graham gave me a book by Anna Pearce about
the Anahat solar cooker, and how a man called Wilberforce had used it to
feed his "family" of street boys.
- When I was in Nigeria in 2002 I gave the book to David Mutua, the
programme manager for Oke-Ogun Community Development Network
- He showed it to Maria, the community cook, and to Amos, a community
development officer with the local government
- David, Maria, and Amos emailed me asking for more information.They
said that fuel for cooking was a real problem.
- I went back to Graham and he put me in touch with Anna.
- Anna told me more, and I passed on what I learned - but my information
was limited as I had met Anna in winter in the UK - with no chance of
practical demonstrations.
- The following year David and I did a needs analysis in Ago-Are.
- The idea of learning more about solar cookers came up again. Amos was
still wanting more information, and asked that Wilberforce - the man
who fed the street children - should come to Ago-Are to teach the people
there.
- It was obvious that Maria had passed information on amongst the women.
- Information about solar cooking was one of the four needs mentioned by
the women. The women were more practical than Amos - they suggested that
it would be too expensive for Wilberforce to come in person - so perhaps
he could make a cassette.
- (The needs analysis related to possible interest from COL -
Commonwealth of Learning - other expressed needs were seen as higher
priority and were acted on)
- April 2004 - I visited Ago-Are again. This time Carole - a Master's
student from Canada, came with me. She got to know Maria, and other
CAWDnet people. Subsequently she put in a proposal to COL, regarding
solar cooking.
- Dec 2004 COL approved Carole's solar cooking project - to be
implemented through John Dada at Fantsuam
- March 2005 David Mutua helped Carole to deliver a training course on
solar cookers and solar cooking at Fantsuam. See
http://www.cawd.net/daisy/CawdNet/g1/742.html and
http://www.cawd.net/daisy/CawdNet/g1/800.html Two people from Ago-Are
attended - Maria - who had shown the original interest in Solar cooking,
and Pastor David - who took over the management of Ago-Are InfoCentre
after David Mutua left.
- After running the training at Fantsuam David and Carole went down to
do more training at Ago-Are.
- People were also being trained to make videos, so there is some video
of the training. http://www.cawd.net/daisy/CawdNet/g1/799.html The
Fantsuam video is in Hausa, the Ago-Are one is in Yoruba.
- There is a weekly workshop on solar cookers/cooking at Fantsuam now,
exploring different cookers and the practicalities of making and using them
- There is a yahoo group - related to the training courses - and a
couple of days ago I saw a contribution on it from Pastor David. There
had been mention of another type of cooker. Pastor David reported that
although the weather is not favourable at present for solar cooking they
look forward to the dry season and to finding out more.
- (Pastor David is able to be part of the Yahoo group discussing solar
cooking thanks to a VSAT at Ago-Are - one of the outcomes of
collaboration with COL)
I don't think it matters if the original impetus comes from an expressed
need within the community or from something put forward from out side.
I believe the important thing is that nothing is imposed and that time
and effort goes in to experimenting in order to see if/how
whatever-it-is matches local needs - so that it is not just a gimmick
or a photo opportunity or a short term happening - but can develop into
a genuine solution to a real problem.
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