I have consulted with several experienced solar cooker colleagues (list at the end of this message) regarding the widespread introduction of solar cookers into Afghanistan, which has an average of 300 solar cooking days/year. They expressed a general consensus that parabolic solar cookers would be the most appropriate of the three types of solar cookers to introduce at this time. The ability of parabolic cookers to generate high temperatures very quickly even at high altitudes and in very cold weather (as long as there is sunshine) all point to this as the technology that will most readily be adopted. The National Solidarity Program could be a useful vehicle for introducing solar cookers into villages.
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| - I have consulted with several experienced solar cooker colleagues (list at the end of this message) regarding the widespread introduction of solar cookers into Afghanistan, which has an average of 300 solar cooking days/year. They expressed a general consensus that parabolic solar cookers would be the most appropriate of the three types of solar cookers to introduce at this time. The ability of parabolic cookers to generate high temperatures very quickly even at high altitudes and in very cold weather (as long as there is sunshine) all point to this as the technology that will most readily be adopted. The National Solidarity Program could be a useful vehicle for introducing solar cookers into villages.
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| - I have consulted with several experienced solar cooker colleagues (list at the end of this message) regarding the widespread introduction of solar cookers into Afghanistan, which has an average of 300 solar cooking days/year. They expressed a general consensus that parabolic solar cookers would be the most appropriate of the three types of solar cookers to introduce at this time. The ability of parabolic cookers to generate high temperatures very quickly even at high altitudes and in very cold weather (as long as there is sunshine) all point to this as the technology that will most readily be adopted. The National Solidarity Program could be a useful vehicle for introducing solar cookers into villages. For longer term stability and job creation, local craftsmen should be taught how to manufacture the solar cookers. Initially, large numbers could be imported from China or India (see below). A very quick impact project might be to introduce them first to the village tea shops where they could be used to boil water in a very public place. Male and female villagers would see them in use and would notice how much less wood is being burned by the owners of the chai hanas. Parabolic solar cookers can also be used for ironing clothes. The irons used in areas where there is no electricity are just that, pieces of iron with a flat bottom, a handle and a place to put hot coals. In India, laundry workers are heating their irons on parabolic cookers and saving a bundle on charcoal. A retired Pakistani Air Force colonel wrote recently about the desperate need in his own country for solar cooker and other simple solar technology--something to consider as we and the Pakistani government work out ways to win the hearts and minds of the people in the Swat Valley and elsewhere along border with Afghanistan. Grace Magney, a U.S. citizen with Global Hope Network has lived and worked in Afghanistan and Pakistan for many years. She and her late husband Gordon have taught solar cooking to thousands of Afghans. Grace has mailed me a copy of the training manual she has written on how to use a parabolic solar cooker. She is willing to help with the training of female Afghan trainers if it can be done in Kabul where she lives. Tens of thousands of Afghan children are spending their days stripping the countryside bare of any remaining vegetation and carrying it back to their compounds for mom to cook with. These children should be in school. I have also been invited into rural Afghan compounds where I have seen the women squatting before smoking piles of brush which they must fan to cook their meals. Problems that would be mitigated by the widespread use of solar cookers: 1.
* Danger faced by young children who must roam far from their villages to harvest reeds and bushes (there are few wild trees left); 2.
* Erosion of topsoil when all ground cover is pulled out to be used for fuel; 3.
* Respiratory and eye damage for women who spend hours every day over smoking fires. The key issues for consideration regarding the widespread introduction of parabolic solar cookers in Afghanistan are: 1.
* Which type of parabolic solar cooker is the most appropriate, durable, least expensive and easiest to introduce? 2.
* How to most effectively introduce this technology into villages and train local trainers? 3.
* What additional equipment and maintenance will be required? 4.
* Manufacture locally or import large numbers of cookers? 5.
* Teaching integrated cooking along with the introduction of the parabolic solar cookers.
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