Family with a new stove.
Cojolya is more than weaving. If you have followed Cojolya through the years, you are familiar with our ONIL stove project that helps reduce the carbon omission from open fires. This year, Cojolya Social has entered an exciting project together with TICOS, Tourism Industry Carbon Offset Services, based in England. Our joint project will help off-set carbon omission through the stove program.
The ONIL stove is a freestanding cooking hearth. It only uses 1/3 of the wood that a regular open fire does, so the benefits are many. The results are not only visible in less air pollution; it also slows down deforestation and as the contained fire chamber emits very little smoke, it reduces pulmonary diseases for the prime users of the stove.
Mainly women and young children spend a lot of time around the cooking fire. The difference in a kitchen, before and after the ONIL stove, is striking. Just imagine what the open fire does to the lungs of a person that works by it for hours every day.
On the same token, it is important to remember that the Maya have a long relationship with the fire. Popol Vuh, a holy book of the Maya, describes how the ancestors gathered on the first mountain. Dawn had not yet arrived, it was freezing cold and the people needed the fire to survive. They made great sacrifice to earn access to it. To this day, the ceremonial fire is the center of the world. A family gathers around it to seek warmth on a cool winter morning or to share stories. To simply trade the living flames for an electric stove just won’t do it.
Couple from San Pedro.
Therefore, Cojolya transfers 2.5 percent from our sales to the ONIL stove project. Along the way, we have been helped by several organizations, such as Canadian OGIFA, Healing the Rainbow in California and Greater Good in Washington State, and from concerned private donors. This however, has not been enough to cover the growing demand in communities around the lake.
TICOS, the British organization, reinvests income generated from carbon offset by supporting eco-friendly projects in tourist destinations around the globe. Journey Latin America, Britain’s leading specialist travel company to Latin America, supports carbon reducing projects to offset the carbon omission caused by travelling. TICOS helps carry out this mission for JLA.
The funds from this co-operation will help us subsidize 60% of the stove cost, plus cover transportation, installation, education and other administrative costs.
Cojolya Social believes that it is important for the owner to feel true ownership of the new stove. Therefore, we choose to spend money on education with home visits, where we explain on how to use the stove properly, rather than giving the stove away for free. We ask the owner to pay about USD47 for the stove, or 40% of its cost. Within a couple of months the stove will have paid for itself, as the family spends 67% less on buying firewood.
You help this cause by making a U.S. tax-deductible donation towards the stove project through either Healing the Rainbow or Greater Good.
