Clean Stoves for Peten Guatemala
The vast majority of families in our barrio cook with wood stoves. The woman and children head out the bush and collect leña (firewood/sticks) every day. The time consumed in the collection of the firewood is time lost caring for children, making tortillas or washing clothes and a million other things that need attention.
The stoves they use are called polloton, which is nothing more than an elevated base on which sit three cinder blocks in a U and metal plate sits atop the three blocks. The leña is fed through the open side of block. The highly carcinogenic smoke billows inside the house and rolls out from underneath the sheet metal roof.
Christin and her pollaton
Our Clean Stoves project is all about giving the women of our barrio something better. Our Clean Stoves use 70% less wood and burn clean, giving the mothers, children and families of our barrio more time, better health and tossing a whole lot less carbon into the air – Buenas Cosas.
The World Health Organization estimates that exposure to smoke from cooking constitutes the fifth worst risk factor for disease in developing countries. Open fires and poorly designed makeshift cook stoves emit smoke and particulate matter which are responsible for nearly 2 million deaths a year worldwide.
