Solar Ovens to aid starving Haitians

Haiti's people have suffered the ravages of food scarcity, lack of medicine and drinkable water, crumbling roads and, most recently, a crippling earthquake.

But Haiti is not without a major resource -- the sun. And Elburn businessman Paul Munsen is betting sunshine can help relieve Haitians' pain.

On Thursday morning, Munsen and his workers from Elburn's Sun Ovens International joined with the volunteer organization Feed My Starving Children in mounting a major relief effort for Haiti.

In Thursday's deep cold, they worked together at FMSC's Chicago-area headquarters on Aurora's far East Side, loading 270,000 meals and 121 solar-powered ovens destined for the earthquake-devastated island nation. The ovens, Munsen said, also could provide long-term aid for undernourished citizens there.

"Right now, each oven we get into Haiti is going to save lives," Munsen said.

The ovens come in two types. One is a large "Villager" oven, which Munsen said can make 1,200 meals a day. The other 120 are "Family" oven units, each capable of preparing meals daily for a family of eight.

Munsen said solar ovens offer an alternative to cooking with charcoal, which has become all the harder to find as Haiti's forests have shrunk. Cooking by solar energy also is environmentally safer because people don't have to inhale toxic charcoal fumes, he said.

"In Haiti, prior to the earthquake, people spent 55 percent of their household income to buy charcoal," Munsen said. "In Haiti, charcoal is not something you do, like going into Home Depot and buying it. You have to burn trees. Today, Haiti is 98 percent deforested."

An official of Feed My Starving Children, assistant site manager Debbi Briggs, noted the packages of dried and dehydrated food sent to Haiti must be cooked.

"Each bag holds six meals," Briggs said. "You must add six cups of water. The water needs to be cooked. That's where the Sun Ovens come in. They are a huge additive to the shipment going down there."

Feed My Starving Children combines the efforts of churches, Scout groups and other not-for-profit groups that work and contribute to making the meals. Only a week ago, Briggs said, the organization was able to ship 698,544 meals to Haiti.

Munsen hopes to travel to Haiti next week to help show residents there how to assemble the ovens. In addition to the 121 shipped Thursday, there also are 297 ovens ready at a licensee's plant in northern Haiti, Munsen said.

"Rotary International is arranging for those items to be purchased from the assembly plant there in Haiti," Munsen said.

All the ovens will go to people living in temporary housing or in temporary tent cities, he added.

Munsen stressed that it is voluntary fund-raising of many organizations that has enabled Sun Ovens to provide the ovens in Haiti.

One of its partners, the Friends of Haiti Organization, suffered the loss of two buildings in the earthquake, and four people who were in the buildings at the time were still unaccounted for at mid-week.

But the donor organizations continue in their mission, Munsen said. Donations toward the cost of the ovens may be sent to Friends of Haiti Organization, P.O. Box 222, Holland, OH 43528. Those wishing to contribute to Feed My Starving Children may contact the group's Web site, www.fmsc.org.