Volunteering at the Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal, we noticed they have a new way to prepare meals without using firewood or kerosene; they are implementing the use of the solar cooker. We asked how it works and we were told that the solar cooker works by reflection and absorbent of sun rays. A special type of mirror reflects the light of the sun, which causes a pan that’s placed in the middle of the cooker to heat up. We drove back to one of the Nepal hotels to meet up with an associate of ours and tell them about this very inexpensive way to save the local forest.
When we arrived and met up with our associate we could hardly contain ourselves with the excitement we had about this solar cooker. We told our associate that like a meal of lentils, rice and meats could be cooked in a hour given the conditions are right. It would take longer on a cloudy day. The solar cooker looks like a satellite dish, or some kind of put together spare parts disassembled junked out spacecraft. It also helps with purifying the water, but you don’t need water to cook eggs or potatoes.
The ecological impact is the best part of the solar cooker, all the near by forest of Nepal have forage for fuels. Every day the refugee camp residence would set out to cut down trees for wood to make fires to cook their meals. Illegally, of course, and this was rapidly causing the deforestation rates in Nepal staggering. So, the introduction of the solar cooker, costing the refugees about a dollar, has drastically reduce the devastation of the forest.
When our associate listened to us explain all the benefits this simple cooker provided to the camp and how it made life a little bit more bearable as life goes for refugees, we all decided to invest our funds out to provide as many solar cookers to all refugee camps around the world.
