Helping people to help themselves: stoves for Ecuador

Support in the development of prototypes

In the highlands of Ecuador, families often still live in very simple conditions: often in small one-room houses that have no windows and are usually covered with a water-repellent thatched roof.

Cooking on an open fire is commonly done in these houses. This is problematic: the smoke in the house hardly dissipates and damages the residents’ lungs and eyes. Children often get burnt and the wood consumption is very high. As soon as the fire is out, it quickly gets cold in the houses at night.

The Catholic Rural People’s Movement in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising has therefore launched a project as part of the “Ecuador Working Group” with the aim of developing a simple stove that dissipates flue gases to the outside, heats the room and greatly reduces wood consumption. The stoves should be designed in such a way that they can be built by the Ecuadorians themselves. The prerequisite for this is that all components can be sourced in the country and that the construction of the stove and its individual parts can be realized completely without electricity.

Mr. Wolfgang Pöhlmann from Lauf, a retired technician, has developed a prototype on a voluntary basis – together with many people involved. We at Wolfshöher Tonwerke were also able to make a small contribution, providing the necessary fireclay bricks and piece of advice.

Two prototypes are now in operation and the know-how has been transferred to Ecuador. Geovanny Zhunaula is an agricultural engineer who lives in Loja, at the southern end of the Ecuadorian highlands, where he looks after the project and is responsible for building the stoves in his home country. He was introduced to stove building by the Catholic Rural People’s Movement and is now able to improve the lives of his fellow countrymen. We think this is a really great project that we are happy to support!