We are an organization of 150 evangelical pastors in Iquitos Peru. We believe that cooking stoves will improve the quality of life for the people of the Amazon. Most people now cook with open fires and they have all of the health and safety issues. With this in mind, we have started a stove project to introduce the Rocket Stove to the peoples of the Amazon.
Contact Information
We live and work in Iquitos, Peru and in the surrounding jungles. Improved cooking stoves do not exist here. It is our mission to introduce cooking stoves so that people can benefit from them. The reasons that cooking stoves are a good idea are well known, but not known here. Almost everyone in rural areas cooks with firewood, but many people in the city also cook with firewood.
Our Experience And Interest In The Four PCIA Central Focus Areas
Improved cooking stoves have never been introduced here. No one has any knowledge of them. As a result, they are new and novel, and like any new thing they must be demonstrated and explained. Their acceptance will be difficult, but once people see and understand them it is our hope that they will be accepted.
First, we plan to introduce stoves to our group of about 150 pastors and their families. Then to 600 more pastors and their families. Meanwhile we will disseminate stoves to our parishioners as rapidly as possible. In addition to churches in Iquitos and the surrounding area, many of us have churches and missions on the Amazon and it's tributaries. We hope also to develop a stove that can be sold in the market.
We have been trained by Ken Goyer of AidAfrica to understand the Rocket Stove technology. and we have learned to make several variations of the Rocket Stove, including the SixBricks Rocket Stove. We realize that to be successful we must produce very many stoves. The easiest way to do this is to mass produce them. We are working with a brick making factory and we are successfully mass producing light weight refractory bricks to make the SixBricks Rocket stove. This way, we can make the most stoves for the least money. Stoves are used here for cooking. We do not need heating stoves. Typically, we cook on open fires indoors, and so the Rocket Stove greatly reduces indoor air pollution.
Our main interest in stoves is to reduce indoor air pollution, reduce the danger of fire, and to improve the health and quality of life of our people. So far we are inexperienced and we have not thought about health monitoring.
Relevant Publications or Studies
None noted
Our Contribution to the Partnership
At the moment, we are on the needy side of participation. We are an extremely poor community and any assistance will be greatfully received. Once we have experience, and we develop our skills we plan to help others. We would like to participate in the PCIA in order to learn more about cooking options and to improve our skills and confidence.
