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Sheffler community cookers

We’ve been posting a bit recently about our upcoming solar reflectors so I thought it might be a good idea not only to show you where they are going to be, but also what they will look like when they are finished. The photo above are two such reflectors of a similar size to the ones we’re going to install. The white building behind is the kitchen of another organisation, and you can see that the reflectors focus the heat going though the open red hatches. This website has a good bit of information about Sheffler, the inventor of the reflectors and the man who came to Hunar Ghar to advise us on installing them.

Going through a few old files this evening I stumbled across the following text from the About page of our website as it was this time 4 years ago:

We, Ed and Ash (el founders), met in our first year at University College London (London, England!) and decided to follow a dream and make a difference. Our travels and real life experience of poverty and deprivation have shaped us both, resulting in a complete commitment to learning more about humanity and the causes of deprivation in society. Educate for Life is a practical organisation, which we set up in order to act on what we learn and potentially help millions of people come away from poverty without losing their sense of humanity.

Talking of millions of people sounds a pie in the sky so our real day to day commitment is absolutely to the projects that we have in place already. Numbers aren’t important here, what is important is commitment and provision of quality which may take longer, but makes it real in the long term, not just a short gratification.

 But Educate for Life isn’t just the two of us, oh no! – there are hundreds of others who have helped us in countless ways already and there will be hundreds more to come, we ‘ope! All of them mean something and even then Educate for Life will always be something more- it is an ideal that anyone can be a part of. There is no need to feel left out! Check out our quick tour or the BBC documentary on us to get a better feel for what we’re about. Then when that’s done, contact us and see how you could help.

I feel old, reading how I used to write!

So Teddy’s been making steady progress this week with the solar cookers. For those interested there are updated plans and sections here and here. Here’s a quick view of the site too:

Plans of solar kitchen placement

It’s not only Teddy that’s been having a good week. Yesterday Neha, Vishnu Priya and Shantilal went with 19 women from the village – as many people as can be crammed into a jeep! – to visit a Self Help Group in a nearby village. I’ve not spoken to Neha yet, but I gather that they met two women there who talked for a long time about their experiences with the SHG, and it really helped some of the women finally GET what these woman’s groups are about, or can be. Hopefully we’ll see this convert into higher motivation, or interest, or movement within the women’s groups. 

Not all the women were interested in what these other women had to say – a few of the younger women from Bakhel were pretty bored, which leads Neha to think that perhaps splitting the group into two by age may be a good idea. In any case, there was lots of information and opinion flowing, it was great for our group to go on a bit of a team trip and I’m sure it will have given lots of food for thought.

Where the solar cookers are going. More photos.

Since getting back to China Teddy has been busy preparing the designs of the solar cookers. He’s still missing some information, so these plans are currently still work in progress, but it may be interesting for you to see how he is getting on. Download/view the pdfs:

SECTION Hunar Ghar solar reflectors

PLAN Hunar Ghar solar reflectors

I just got a great email from a Miss Seleema Grewal, younger sister of Jas, Educate for Life trustee. Unbeknownst to me Seleena has been busy at school with her year 7 class, telling everyone about Educate for Life, having votes on different fundraising ideas and events such as a summer sports tournament, and garnering support to have Educate for Life selected as school charity for the next academic year. Brilliant stuff!

They recently had a homework to make Educate for Life posters. Here’s Seleena’s poster: