Wealth-Growth and Empowerment Through Stoves
The blog was written by HSP employee Alyssa Ondarza
With all of your efforts and partnership, we’ve done it again! Through recent funding and community engagements, HSP has been able to assist in the building of new stoves for six new families.
At HSP we are not here to promote the suffering slot. Joel Robbins introduced the term “suffering slot” as a call to action for the opposition to psychological othering. What does this really mean? The suffering slot can be seen as less of a title and more of an emotional identity. When we view different cultures and realities as needing sympathy or “help” we often weigh the unknown against the reality we are familiar with through our own relative understanding of what is suffering and what is comfort. HSP is not focused on suffering but more respectively on power displacement. We do not fight poverty but the systemic imbalance of opportunity. Rather than promoting notions of an “underdeveloped” community we accurately address this imbalance of opportunity and provide a product designed to return symmetry and diminish the custom of othering by default. Consequently, HSP sells products of empowerment for democratic opportunity through partnerships geared toward social justice and equality. One of these products is stoves.
Why Stoves?
Stoves are the heart of Guatemalan homes and are an invaluable foundation for women's empowerment in their community. HSP has partnered with the community to codesign stoves that meet the needs of women who are nurturers as life givers through food preparation, nurturers as master artisans in clothes making, and nurturers as strategic business people through managing family funds.
Women and their families spend much of their time communing around the stove in food prep and warmth. With open-fire stoves indoors, cooking produces smoke inside the house, equivalent to smoking 350 cigarettes a day. In instances where the stove is moved outside, women are warriors against the weather. When it rains, no fire can bloom and only smoke is produced ultimately reducing heat and increasing smoke inhalation - the leading cause of lung infection for women and their families in Guatemala. Clean air stoves are a direct resource for wellness care, reducing smoke inhalation, and providing eco-sustainable heating.
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
As our world’s climate evolves, families have moved to higher altitudes to avoid flooding and mudslides. In 2021, flooding and mudslides were reported to have displaced more than 12,000 people and killed over 30. Because no atmospheric event such as a hurricane or tropical depression had been reported in most cases, the disaster emergency authorities could not help and families were faced with the need to move. Higher altitudes mean colder weather, and having clean air stoves inside brings all of the warmth with none of the smoke.
Checking In and Saying Thank You
Santiaga Melchora Cayax de Juarez & Rodrigo Ramón Juarez Say
Located in Santa Rita Salcajá, Doña Melchora and her husband are cherished by their community as a united and humble family. Santiaga works two times a week at the Salcajá center, and Rodrigo works as a skilled weaver on a foot loom as well as a farmer. Their family is grateful for the construction of the improved stove as they are able to spend more time in their community and practicing their careers. Time around the stove has been transformed into warmth and communion without the threat of smoke.
Santos Maria Chan Cua de Say
Santos Maria Chan Cua de Say with her new stove
Santos Maria Chan Cua de Say with her old stove
Doña Santos Maria (age 86), originally from the village of Santa Rita Salcajá has two children living and working in the metropolitan area of Quetzaltenango to help support her and her grandchildren. Doña Maria and her grandchildren now reside in Santa Rita Salcajá in response to rising rent costs in the city. Her new stove is now a service to herself, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren.
A Breath of Fresh Air
Highland Support Project and partners want to extend the warmest of thank yous to all of our donors and supporters who have helped in the stove initiative that promotes wellness and empowerment through cleaner air and employment of local Salcajá masons and engineers.
If you haven’t yet gotten in on all this goodness, plan a trip now, or support new families! We can’t wait to see how much more we can do together.
Xoxo HSP
References:
Davies, R. (2021, November 1). Guatemala – Floods and landslides in 2021 rainy season leave 12,000 displaced and 32 dead. FloodList – Floods and flooding news from around the world. https://floodlist.com/america/guatemala-2021-rainy-season
Robbins, J. (2013). Beyond the suffering subject: Toward an anthropology of the good. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 19(3), 447-462. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12044