Window into Honduras: “Grounding grant work through an impactful field visit”

by Samantha Lauth - TWP Grants Manager

Earlier this month, I had the great privilege of traveling with my colleagues to Honduras, the home of Trees, Water & People’s flagship clean cookstove program, and the birthplace of the Justa stove. Along our route from Tegucigalpa to Copan, we met stove builders and users, and my once abstract understanding of TWP’s work in Honduras came to life. 

Inside the homes of stove users, accompanied by the master stove builders – Maestros Fogoneros – who built them, we were met with unparalleled warmth and generosity. Embraced by abuelas half our size, and handed tortillas fresh and hot off the plancha, we were welcomed into the lives of rural campesino communities. By asking questions and listening, walking with them as they showed us around their kitchens and gardens, we learned of families’ aspirations, struggles and for many, how the Justa stove has improved their quality of life and eased burdens from daily tasks.

From stove production to delivery to construction – a process we saw from start to finish – the Maestros Fogoneros network is a well-oiled machine. As a highlight of the trip for us all, my colleagues and I helped build a Justa stove in Lepaterique, laying and leveling the brickwork, affixing the chimney, and finally placing the plancha. I remember watching as Abilio, the stove technician we accompanied that day, expertly and evenly laid the stove’s first layer of brick and cement, attempting to mimic this precision when it was my turn. We’ve since received updates and photos that show the stove is in use and working well for the family!

Justa stove before and after; here I am leveling the bricks during construction (left), side by side with the completed stove in use (right).

In each community, I was reminded of the importance of our local allies at AHDESA, Ecofogon, and in the Maestros Fogoneros network, municipalities, and community-based organizations. As the experts of local contexts, and unfaltering faces of the stove program, our partners increase rapport with communities, as well as stove adoption and use. Critically, the long process of stove socialization, transportation, and installation allows for a window into the community, granting our partners intimate knowledge of other essential and ongoing needs. As such, they played a most critical role in delivering emergency supplies, food, and water to the families we met along our journey that were most impacted and isolated by COVID lockdowns and 2020’s hurricanes. With the chance to chat and interview several stove technicians, we learned how the stoves are benefiting them as well: providing alternatives to U.S.-bound migration, a means of diversifying and securing opportunities for income, and strengthening skills in entrepreneurship.

The partners in TWP’s story who I’d come to know so well through grant proposals and budget lines, were everything and nothing like they were on paper; in the best of ways. Days together in the field were made richer by the meals, jokes, and stories we shared; evening gatherings of music, dancing, and meeting their families. Now back home at the TWP office in Fort Collins, Colorado, I’ve been reflecting on my gratifying 2-weeks time in Honduras, seeing and experiencing the diligent field work of our partners that complements my fundraising work here. Combining our power for good, the stove program is quickly growing, with stove requests numbering in the thousands, demonstrating the need and how far positive word of mouth is spreading across the country.

The opportunity to see and learn in the field was most meaningful and motivating. I am proud to work alongside TWP’s Central American allies, now as friends. Nos vemos Honduras!