Solar Cooking Seminars

A group of people stand in a dimly lit room, hands joined and heads bowed in prayer. The daylight streams in through the open door behind them and rose and white fabric decorates the walls
In preparation for the dayโ€™s seminar, the team joins in prayer
A crowd of school children watch solar ovens being set up
The United Methodist Church in Bo, Sierra Leone that hosted this seminar has a large school. This presented an opportunity for us to share with the school kids about solar cooking as well as the adults who were at the seminar.
Two women place pots of food in an oven while a man holds the lid open for them
Learning techniques to avoid pitfalls such as losing heat or toppling the reflector while placing pots in the oven and to prevent the wind from blowing the oven open are best learned by doing.
A man wearing a blue shirt stands in an open air pavilion, talking to a group of women seated in white plastic chairs
Because of their cultural understanding our partners are best equipped to teach our seminars. It is also important to have a person who shares cultural identity of the seminar participants in a position of leadership and authority. Rev. Erasme Figaro, director of the Dominican ministry, teaches the classroom portion while cooking instructor Gertrudis Garcรญa shows solar-cooked food.
A woman in a turquoise dress slices leaves into a bowl. Flanking her are two other women holding kitchen utensils
During our seminars, we cook the foods that people in the community eat everyday, using the techniques they normally use to cook. In Sierra Leone, this means cutting greens, such as potato or cassava to form the basis of palava sauce. We found among the participants, someone with the skills to cut the greens
A woman in a colorful, polka dot apron grinds herbs with a wooden mortar and pestle
A mortar and pestle is an essential tool in any Dominican kitchen.
A young man holds up solar oven baked bread with a smile. Behind him, two people look on with interest.
One of the ways we keep the food choices true to the local community is by encouraging seminar participants to try their own recipes in the oven. Here a seminar participant shows off his solar-baked onion bread.
Two smiling women sample, and approve of, rice
In the Dominican Republic, if rice isnโ€™t good, people will not accept the oven. You can see by the expressions on their faces how pleased these seminar participants are with how the rice came out!
A woman wearing a Solar Oven Partners polo shirt gives plates of food to a small group of. people
Seminar participants learn hands-on how to alter their cooking methods for a solar oven by prepping the ingredients. Then they enjoy fellowship while experiencing the smells, tastes and textures of the solar-cooked meal. There is no better proof-of-concept!
A tasty looking serving of stewed meat and vegetables atop white rice sits on a brown and white plate.
Meat in palava sauce over riceโ€”a healthy and delicious Sierra Leonean meal, all cooked in a solar oven!
Three smiling girls, an older man and older woman work together to build the outer plastic casing of an oven
In addition to all of the benefits of solar cooking, our seminar provides leadership development opportunities. The youth in the church at Monte Cristi, the Dominican Republic, provided tremendous leadership in organizing, publicizing and carrying out the solar cooking seminars in and around their community.
Two men, one wearing a Solar Oven Partners t-shirt and the other a dark brown jacket, work with a piece of wood and a solar oven outer box.
Volunteer in Mission Christopher Sylvah works with a seminar participant in Sierra Leone to form the outer box of an oven they are assembling during the seminar.
A young boy wearing a blue, white, and red striped polo and a look of intense concentration drives a screw to hold together a solar oven frame.
This boy will go home with a sense of accomplishment at having helped assemble ovens.
A woman on the left wields a hammer. A man in the middle holds the oven box pieces she hammers while a man on the right looks on.
As we are cooking in solar ovens, we are also assembling ovens which participants will take home at the end of day two. This increases the understanding of how the ovens work and volunteers in mission and seminar participants enjoy working together.
A young woman and a man work together to build a solar oven
Volunteer in Mission and Board Member Emily Warns works with a seminar participant to affix the frame to the top of an oven box as they finish assembling a solar oven during our seminar in the Dominican Republic..
An older man wearing a Solar Oven Partners polo shirt gives an affectionate side hug to a beaming older woman in a neat striped button down shirt
Volunteer in Mission, Rev. Scott McKirdy, rejoices with this happy seminar participant as she picks up her oven to take home.
A smiling woman carries a solar oven in front of herself while a woman behind her carries her oven on her head.
Having learned how they work, what their benefits are, how to cook in and care for them, participants joyfully take home a life-changing solar oven at the end of day two.

Categories

Donate
Get Involved