While most of us spend our time contemplating which cookies are best- choco chip or butter cookies in the supermarket, Deepak Ashwani a young guy from Kapurthala in Punjab is busy with cookies of all together different type- Fuel Cookies. I have known Deepak for almost 12 years now. We both studied Engineering together in the holy city of Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab. In 2010, Deepak left his very comfortable and well paying job to charter a journey to improve the lives of the most impoverished communities in the world.
More than 2.5 billion people still cook their meals on open fires using firewood, charcoal and animal dung. Deadly smoke from open cooking fires kills 491 people each hour globally, which is more than AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis deaths combined. Open cooking fires also cause deforestation, soil erosion and emit 21% of all black carbon globally, a major cause of climate change. During one of his visits to Eastern Himalayas Deepak was moved by sight of women cooking in open fires which exposed them and their family to harmful effects of the deadly smoke.
Later, he founded Dazin in 2013 to provide a solution to this problem.
How does Dazin work?
A woman living in a rural area of Bhutan gives her wood waste to Dazin, instead of burning it as she normally do. Dazin turns this collected wood waste into condensed fuel 'cookie' and in return, give her a smokeless cookstove on lease and enough fuel cookies to cover her needs. The surplus fuel made from her wood waste, is sold at a competitive price to urban customers ensuring economic sustainability and further benefits to other rural households.
After the successful pilot implementation in Bhutan, Dazin aims to expand to other areas including in India. But for all this good work to continue and to reach more and more people Dazin needs funds and support. It has a started a crowd funding campaign and all are requested to contribute in their best possible way. No amount is small.
Your contribution will help to remove smoke-related illness and deaths for a family. The cost of each smoke-less stove contributed by you to rural households is recovered within 7 months due to fuel cookies sales in cities. This recovered cost is used to lease another stove to a family allowing Dazin to multiply on its own and creating ripple impact of your contribution.
Please visit the crowd funding page and contribute as much as you want: http://bit.ly/1BwGktv
| This problem is one of world’s biggest social and environmental problems. |
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We have a solution – a Crowdsourced Solution The technology of smokeless stoves and renewable fuel to solve this problem already exists, but it is too expensive to reach the masses because, “Those who need it, can’t afford it and those who can afford it, don’t need it!” This is where Dazin (a cooperative in Bhutan) comes in to make already existing technology affordable by its unique inclusive model. |