Sun Kings

Rotary Club helps bring solar ovens to Third World

Pioneer Press, Wednesday July 18, 2001

Reuters By Frances Kerry

Paul Munsen places a batch of cookies into the sun oven for baking. The Rotary Club of Oak Park-River Forest is participating in a program which brings the ovens to Third World Countries.

Families who attended the Rotary Club of Oak Park-River Forest’s annual barbecue last week were treated to a special dessert – fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. The cookies were baked in the park with the help of a sun oven, which was on display during the picnic.

George Shutes, a member of the Oak Park-River Forest Rotary District 6450 is a secretary of a committee that solicits funds to purchase these ovens for villages in Third World countries.

Each oven, which costs about $13,000 with shipping, is purchased through Rotary International and delivered to a Rotary club in the chosen country, typically in South or Central America.

“The Rotary club in that country is then responsible for them” Shutes said. “They are responsible for training the women who do the cooking”.

The oven, so large it was transported to the Rotary’s barbecue on a trailer, can make enough bread or biscuits to feed a village twice a day for pennies, he said.

“It looks like a satellite,” Shutes said of the large oven. Solar panels on the oven automatically turn to follow the sun. “It is kind of fascinating to see the sun cooking.”

According to information provided by Sun Ovens International, based in Elburn, Il., the 1,000-pound oven can bake 50 loaves of bread an hour.

“You are pretty much able to cook anything in it you can cook in a regular oven,” said Paul Munsen president of Sun Ovens International.

The oven also improves the villagers’ health as drinking water can be purified in them. It also reduces carbon dioxide emissions from wood fires.

Saves Trees

“The women also gather firewood and spend a great deal of their time hunting for wood.” Shutes said, “They save on time and cutting of trees for wood which is then turned into charcoal. They do a lot of their cooking with charcoal.

“One of the things that fascinates me is the saving of wood in the forest and eliminating carbon dioxide,” he said “That affects all of us in the world.”

Because the sun ovens replace cooking fires, they eliminate the smoke that is the leading cause of infectious lung afflictions responsible for the deaths of more than 5 million children in the Third World each year.
“The leading cause of infant mortality is infectious lung disease because a mother is holding the child and stirring the pot for hours,” Munsen said.

The oven on display at the Rotary’s barbecue was meant to show members and their families what exactly it is they are being asked to fund. The Oak Park-River Project already has contributed $1,000 toward the project.

“I’m hopeful we can get more.” Shutes said, “Our quota this year is 10. That takes a lot of work.”

One couple from the local district is traveling the United States and Canada trying to encourage more Rotary clubs to support the sun oven program, named Temple Solar Project.

The project was established in November 1997 in memory of the past district governor, William Temple. Of the 64 area Rotary Clubs in the district, 36 participate in the sun oven program.

In the last three years, the Rotary has supplied 28 ovens to Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Angola, and Nepal. This year, Shutes said the Rotary is hoping to purchase 10 sun ovens and next year the goal is 20.

Munsen said the one oven the Rotary purchased is being used by a school for the blind in the Dominican Republic. The school uses the oven in its bakery and students have to work one hour for each hour of training they receive. The bread is then sold and the profits are returned to improve the school, Munsen said.

Orphanages too use the oven to generate revenue and to teach the children valuable skills.

“The skill of bread baking even in the most remote countries is still in demand,” Munsen said.

Rotary members, who gathered around the large sun oven, and a smaller version that can be used in a back yard, had many questions for Munsen at last week’s picnic.

We wanted the club to see it in action.” Munsen told the members. “The Oak Park-River Forest Rotary has been extremely supportive of the Temple Solar Project.”