As in all the mountain regions of Nepal, people in Humla too use fire wood for cooking purposes every day of the year. Added to this, they burn the smoky pine wood resin for light in their homes. The winter nights are long and cold and just the utter lack of enough warm clothing automatically implies that the fire has to burn late into the night. One can hardly believe figures of 30 to 40 kg of fire wood consumption per family a day. Women have to walk seldom for 4 hours high up in the forests every other day to get the needed fire wood cut and carried down to their village. What a drudgery! Considering the population increase of 2.6% per year in Humla, it is obvious that the deforestation problem has reached alarming proportions.

People are not informed as to the implications such Deforestation has for the future of their country. RIDS-Nepal sees the pressing need to take up this challenge and work along side the local people in more awareness raising and finding alternative solutions.

20 Humli families are now cooking with a solar parabol cooker, saving fire wood as well as less hardship for the women, and last but not least, the food tastes as good.

Considering the fact that in Humla the sun shines an average of 6.9 hours per day throughout the year, it was clear for RIDS-Nepal that we have to test the cooking of the daily meal with a Solar Parabol Cooker, to substitute to some extend the daily consumption of fire wood, all in an effort to fight the Deforestation and minimize the drudgery for women to get the daily fire wood. RIDS-Nepal  propagated these alternative cooking with a solar cooker in 1999, and run in 2000 with 20 families and the International Nepal Fellowship Leprosy and Tuberculosis hospital in Humla a programme through which they could purchased with a 50% subsidy (which RIDS-Nepal could get from an Government body) a solar cooker.

Be it rice, lentil or bread, let it all be from the solar cooker	Bread from the solar cooker. And how good it tastes ...

As you are aware, the problem of deforestation here is not limited to Nepal only, but has a much wider implication for global climatic conditions as well. Where does one begin? Let's start small but effective! The full price for one Parabol Solar Cooker is US$120 (incl. transport). Are you willing to sponsor in our fight together against the deforestation and minimize the women's drudgery some solar cookers? If you need any more information please get in touch with us. Our email: azahnd@rids-nepal.org