More than 30 years ago, the non-profit organization Asociación Hondureña para el Desarrollo (AHDESA) was established by its founder, engineer Ignacio Osorto, to serve vulnerable communities in Honduras.

In the heart of the Opalaca Biological Reserve, nestled between the departments of Intibucá and Lempira in Honduras, Indigenous communities are making significant contributions to conservation through the adoption of the Justa 3D Stove.

Gloribel Bautista is an Indigenous Lenca woman and Justa clean cookstove builder, who exemplifies the transformative impact of community engagement and education.

Back in November 2020, Hurricanes Eta and Iota (category 4 and 5) hit Central America with devastating force, causing rivers to overflow, washing out roads and bridges, eroding farmland, and flooding entire communities.

Doña Justa Nunez is one of the rare ones. Fed up with respiratory issues that plagued her and her friends in her community, she launched a women-led initiative to get smoke out of people’s kitchens. Driven by a vision of better health and a cleaner environment, she got the attention of nonprofit organizations working with her local church, who set out to design a better wood-burning cookstove in her village.

Have you heard of helicopter research? It basically means researchers from wealthy countries conduct studies in lower-income countries, collect samples, analyze and publish findings with minimal involvement from local experts, and offer no benefits or report-back information for communities. This is also called neocolonial, parachute, or parasitic research and can be found across scientific disciplines. As a multi-disciplinary researcher in Epidemiology and Anthropology, I cringe to write this. It is familiar both within my own experiences and what I know from colleagues.

Homemakers Dilcia Martinez, Lucia Flores and Brenda Servellon along with stove builder Avilio Garcia discuss the benefits and progression of the Justa Stove.

Maestra Fogonera - Inclusion and Women Empowerment

Ignacio (Nacho) Osorto, founder of our partner organization AHDESA in Honduras, likes to say that when he met Trees, Water & People (TWP) founder Stuart Conway in 1998, his nonprofit was little more than an idea in a briefcase. An agronomist by trade, Nacho Osorto was working to restore and reforest several watersheds in rural communities outside of the capital city, Tegucigalpa.