Shikha Raturi reports from Fiji on the first solar cooker installation and training at Hart Home, Ba, Viti Levu

Finally the day arrived. After driving for
nearly 5 hours, the team reached Ba Hart Home just before midday.

The first solar cooker
installation and related activities took place within Hart Home on the 9^th and 10^th
May. ‘See
Solar, Cook Solar’ will fund solar cookers for women in rural and island
locations, two to  provide a safer, more economical and environmentally sustainable
alternative to traditional kerosene stoves and one to provide a source of income generation. 

 

Photograph: Ba Hart home resident sitting
with her collected stock of wood

It took nearly 4-5 hours to set up the first
solar cooker. The children both girls and boys, men and women were briefed and encouraged
to join in. It was great to see women taking part in this exercise. One set up in the first day and the other two were completed
by first half of the morning next day.  The
residents were being verbally trained as they were helping the team assemble
the cookers. After this they were briefed on the maintenance of solar cookers.
One could feel the excitement after the installation of first cooker.  They were given a video CD produced by the
solar cooker supplier. An installation guide was compiled by the Fiji team
knowing that they do not have access to computer all the time.

 

Photograph: SI Ba President Mrs Veena Kiran
and member Doreen Charan are all ears

 

Photograph: Women at work – Listen to
instruction and assemble the solar cooker

 

Photograph: Women at work – assembling the
solar cooker

Next day
was ‘showtime’! The residents were given tips on how to best use the equipment and
angling of parabolic reflectors as the sun moves during the day so that it
absorbs maximum radiation and produces heat.

As is the
case whenever you bring a new thing to a community, there is a degree of
apprehension followed by total change of hearts as they see it for themselves.
So we were not surprised to see an old woman who was quite skeptical, comment
if at all this (solar cooker) would work. Then as we cooked ‘cassava’
(a root crop, staple food of Fijians) in one pot and fish in another, just the
expression on the old woman’s face was remarkable. She tested the food to see if it
was cooked and then commented, "I believe in solar", nodding with
approval. The residents were again briefed on setting up (angling
the parabolic reflector as the sun moves) and maintaining solar cookers.

 

Photograph:
Skeptical elderly woman gives in after testing the food “I believe in Solar”

The
children and women then gathered in the community hall where there was an informal session
on different forms of renewable energies and its use, discussed with the
help of paper based educational resources compiled by the Fiji team.
They were then taught about how solar cooker works and the process of
conversion with the help of paper based resources and pictorially. Lastly,
children learned about conversion of solar energy to heat energy through
simulation/play.

 

Photograph:
Educational resources for renewable energies with emphasis on solar energy and
solar cooker

The
children were asked to draw or write about solar energy and its use. It was
remarkable to see that nearly 50% gave drying clothes as a use but after the
session all gave cooking as a use of solar energy. A sense of ‘mission
accomplished’ was evident on Soroptimists’ faces and they posed with some of the
children from the community.

 

Photograph:
Fiji Soroptimists with Ba Hart Home residents

And this has got to be our poster girl, (below). Sai is the person in-charge of Shady Cool in Hart Home. This cooker
is the one that will provide a source of income generation. Sai was very keen
and she proved that she was ‘listening’ by giving us the proof next day. The
solar cooker in the photograph was the first one to be completed and the team left around
8p.m, making a note that for cooking next day, the parabolic dish would need
adjusting but purposely left without doing it themselves,  treating it as ‘Sai’s test’. The next day, the team was pleasantly surprised that Sai had adjusted the
parabolic dish as instructed on the previous day. Sai ‘passed the test’ and earned
the team’s confidence.

 

Photograph: Gorgeous Sai proudly poses with
her pot of cooked cassava in the newly acquired Solar Cooker

Sai also helped with translation not just
in Fijian language but also Indo-Fijian hindi as the team conducted various
educational sessions with the children and women. It was also encouraging to
see a shift in both children and women’s thinking about ‘renewable energy’ in
particular, solar energy.

The only two tasks that could not be
carried were the signing of MoU and the erecting of the plaque, which will be done at a
later date. SI Ba plans to hold a launching ceremony for the solar cooker which
would also provide the SI Fiji region much needed publicity.

It was a huge experience for the team and
indeed a very humbling one.