The February 2011 session for building stoves by the Guatemala Stove Project (GSP) is currently underway. The GSP is an indigenous non-profit organization formed by a small group of North American volunteers. GSP has been making stove since 1999 and has since then built about 3500 stoves. The stove building projects are funded by donations from various people.
Every year the organization collects a group of volunteers who build stoves for the Mayan people with the help of local masons. The families served by the GSP are part of Guatemala's impoverished Maya majority. Sixty per cent of Guatemalans who are members of indigenous Mayan groups own only six per cent of the land and most of them survive on less than $2 a day. For centuries, the Maya have cooked on three-stone fires built on the floors of kitchens.
The need to build cookstoves came up as the open fire inside the houses had terrible impact on the health of women and children. While some women suffered from severe hearing and eyesight impairment others suffered from lung infections or both. A simple masonry stove made with a stovepipe that carried the smoke outside solved the problem of the people.
This year Karen Secord of Canada along with many others has volunteered to build stoves in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. For that purpose she went through Stove-building workshop in Perth. Karen is hopeful that the experience will be both beneficial and rewarding. "I feel it is my opportunity to give back to help others. If it weren't for the kindness of others, I might not be in a position to help,” she said.
To read the full story: Changing lives in Guatemala
