Well-being through Solar Cooking
Few things matter as much as healthy food and clean water. Solar Oven Partners has empowered families through solar cooking and water pasteurization since the year 2000. We do this with the help of our many partners: people like you, faith communities like yours.
Where We Work
Navajo Nation
A SIMPLE SOLAR OVEN
AND SO MUCH MORE
With affordable materials, dedicated volunteers, and sound financial accountability, the work of Solar Oven Partners begins when we…
…BUILD SOLAR OVENS
Each solar oven costs about $200 to manufacture and deliver to a trained solar cook. Because volunteers donate their labor, per-unit costs are very low. Oven recipients also make a small financial donation, contributing toward a sense of dignity and ownership.
- Volunteers fabricate oven components in South Dakota’s three workshops.
- Volunteers sew accessories from home or church.
- Oven recipients contribute financially.
Learn how ovens are made and how you can help!
Building a solar oven is just the beginning. Each recipient will…
…learn to cook with the sun
Our two-day solar cooking seminar, in partnership with local leaders, engages future solar cooks in active, hands-on learning while connecting with neighbors near and far.
- Volunteers in Mission (VIMs) and oven recipients together assemble ovens during mission-site seminars.
- With hands-on practice, participants learn how to alter their traditional cooking techniques to make their cultural foods using the solar oven.
- Participants learn the basics of oven care.
- VIMs and oven recipients share the joy of their solar-cooked meal with one another.
- Ovens are distributed to participants completing the seminar.
TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT OUR COOKING SEMINARS AND LEARN HOW YOU CAN BE A VIM.
Through hands-on, face-to-face mission encounters, we build ovens, empower people to use them, and…
…IMPACT LIVES
Cooking is a daily activity with far-reaching implications. A family with a solar oven has a tool that will positively impact their lives in meaningful ways.
- Reducing the need for expensive cooking fuels like propane, wood or charcoal frees a family’s income for urgent needs like food and education.
- The oven’s water pasteurization indicator (WaPI) helps protect against water-borne diseases.
- Solar ovens provide small business opportunities and supplemental income.
- Entire communities can benefit when more people use solar cooking. The use of wood and charcoal as cooking fuel accelerates deforestation, which can lead to flooding, soil erosion and landslides.
CLICK TO BE INSPIRED BY STORIES OF HOW PEOPLE'S LIVES HAVE BEEN IMPACTED.
Our work offers hands-on volunteering in the Dakotas and cross-country cultural experiences that..
…build life-changing relationships
Person-to-person encounters enrich what we accomplish together, whether it be oven-building in a South Dakota workshop, solar cooking on mission sites, learning about healthy lives and environments, or creating new friendships.
- Workshop volunteers deepen relationships while serving together.
- In-country partners work with grassroots organizers, training new leaders.
- VIMs learn about the history that has led to the poverty conditions they witness.
- A mission journey is a theologically rich cross-cultural experience, fostering learning, justice-seeking and lasting bonds of friendship.
READ ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP-BUILDING POWER OF SERVICE WITH SOLAR OVEN PARTNERS.
Our Vision
Creating healthy partnerships to increase community well-being physically, economically, environmentally, and spiritually.
Our Mission
Establish long-term partnerships with communities having a high degree of economic deprivation and environmental degradation to form communion, deepen understanding, and create opportunity for impact.
Construct and distribute solar ovens and educate on their use and care in partner communities.
Improve community well-being for partners:
- Physically – better health and greater personal safety
- Economically –cost savings and income opportunities
- Environmentally – improved air quality and reduced deforestation
- Spiritually – increase awareness of and relationship with Jesus Christ