The Fair Opportunities Group (FOG) is a Canadian Non-Governmental Organization founded by two former University of Waterloo students. It aids in the development of community-based, self-sustainable projects in the Third World, and aims to empower disadvantaged communities to create and direct positive changes to their environment.
In the summer of 1998, the FOG built and tested a brick stove based on a Guatemalan stove design which has a track record of using half the firewood of open fires. The purpose of the pilot project was to determine the feasibility of introducing efficient wood-burning stoves into a impoverished Nicaraguan village to combat poverty in the community. The objectives of the proposed stove project were to be pursued through a two-tiered approach: a pilot stove was to be constructed in the summer to examine the logistics of the new stove design in terms of materials, economics, and community acceptance; and subsequent investigation was to search for opportunities for economic betterment and empowerment of the community in the long run.
The final report on the outcome of the pilot stove follows:
More information on the community in which the stove project was run and updates on the status of the project in the longer term are also available.
The following is the training guide (written in Nicaraguan Spanish) on building an efficient wood burning stove. The guide comes in five sections:
You're welcome to download the files for use/distribution.
This page authored by Sarah Kamal in December 1999.