Fuego del Sol Haiti
LOCATION: Haiti
SUMMARY: Fuego Del Sol Haiti is a social enterprise that confronts Haiti’s deadly charcoal addiction through development, introduction and adoption of innovative ecological fuel briquettes, presses, stoves, and the training and empowerment of women. Fuego Del Sol, the largest upcycler in Haiti, also collects and separates a wide range of waste materials into sustainable products and plans to include farming, green building, and land reclamation.
PROBLEM SPACE: “Haiti is 98+% deforested. Haitians burn 500,000+ tons of charcoal annually which kills 5,000,000+ tons of trees, most of which are smuggled from the Dominican Republic. If the DR closes its borders, Haitians (without charcoal) will riot countrywide. Port-au-Prince produces 5000+ tons of waste paper, cardboard and sawdust every month, which previously was either burned in unprotected dumps or bailed and sent to China.
USAID (2007): Haiti’ s health indicators are the worst in the western hemisphere with infant mortality at nearly 72 deaths per 1,000 live births and a maternal death ratio of 523 women per 100,000 live births. In Haiti, cooking with charcoal and firewood on crude stoves has a significant adverse impact on human health. It has been estimated that the average life span in Haiti is shortened by 6.6 years because of the impacts of indoor air pollution caused by indoor burning of biomass. Acute Lower Respiratory Illness (ALRI), the global number one killer of children under five years of age is also the number one killer of under-fives in Haiti with ALRI mortality estimated to be more than 40 percent. This mortality burden is undoubtedly related to the massive use of biomass as cooking fuel.
SOLUTION:Fuego del Sol is a social-eco enterprise with LLC business structure in the DR / Haiti and 501(c)(3) NGO charitable tax-deductible status in the US. FdS is a pioneering triple-bottom line (social development, ecological improvement and financial sustainability) company, working in the DR / Haiti since 2005. FdS engages the UNEP recommended model of providing ecological tourism as an economic engine for FdS developmental projects, through connecting compassionate international visitors with the history, cultures, cuisine and intrigue of the peoples of the DR / Haiti. To assist Haiti’s social development, the FdS team employs Comprehensive Design through: waste collection / separation / processing, recycled materials production, ecological stoves/briquettes cooking introduction/adoption, ergonomic job creation, industrial mechanization, training, and follow-up. FdS is unique in offering a complete briquette / improved cookstove system preferred by Haitians over cooking with deadly charcoal. Fuego del Sol works for the Canadian Embassy and international NGOs to collect, separate and dispose of their waste as ecologically as possible. To reach the current briquette production capacity of 20,000 briquettes per day, FdS picks up recyclable source fuel from additional international agencies and organizations. FdS is building the briquette market through training school cooks in briquette cooking techniques.