Ghana News

Board member travels to Ghana to teach about solar energy
Posted Feb. 16, 2006 by Kristie Timber, LRSCC intern

It's the sunshine that brought Lansing Regional Sister Cities Commission board member Gardi back to Ghana Feb. 7 through Feb. 27. Gardi traveled to Lansing's sister city, Akuapim South District, to teach local young women how to use donated solar ovens.

The young women will then be able to take the ovens back to their local communities to introduce the new technology.

The solar ovens are a product of Sun Ovens, an Illinois-based company working to combat international problems of deforestation and women's health through portable solar technology.

Using money donated from a small family foundation in East Lansing, Gardi planned to purchase the ovens at an assembly plant in Accra, the capital of Ghana, about 23 kilometers (14.3 miles) away from Akuapim South District's capital city, Nsawam.

In developing nations like Ghana, Gardi said the majority of people in rural areas use wood for cooking fires. This process has many implications on the health of the women who must spend time collecting the wood each day, in addition to the detrimental effects on the environment, Gardi added.

Because they typically spend between three and seven hours per day preparing food near these fires, women and children are posed with disproportionate health risks including pneumonia, chronic respitory disease and lung cancer, according to a 2005 World Health Organization report. The pollutants can also adversely affect pregnancy and cause death, especially among exposed children.

Population growth in Africa, reported the World Health Organization, only increases the reliance on biomass fuels like wood.

Ghana lost at least 25 percent of its forest cover between 1990 and 2005 according to the environmental watch Web site mongabay.com.

Solar energy, by contrast, is immediately available, free and constant, Gardi said. "This is technology that is appropriate to the environment in which they live."

Sun Ovens, operating in more than 126 countries, sees Ghana as the gateway to Africa, Gardi said.

Gardi said she would visit at least two all girls' schools in the district to teach 17 and 18-year-old senior students about solar energy. During the hour-long sessions Gardi will prepare a meal from an African solar oven cookbook full of recipes for foods traditional to Ghana like bread, okra and stew. At the end of the session students will have a chance to taste the food.

"It always takes a while to change attitudes, but by working with older girls so that they can take the ovens back to their own villages to introduce the technology, hopefully this will work," Gardi said.

The 2-by-2 ovens weigh about 20 pounds and are collapsible and portable. They come with pots and pans and are well-insulated enough to bake, roast, boil or stew, heating up to 350 F.

Depending on the sophistication of the teachers and science departments, Gardi said she could spend between one and three days at each school. The lessons, developed from curriculum materials from Lansing Community College, would be conducted in English, the official language of Ghana.

"When I return I feel a sense of satisfaction that I've made a difference for the people of our sister city," Gardi said.

Akuapim South District is one of 17 districts in the Eastern Region of Ghana, and can be compared to a county. The district signed a Sister Cities agreement with the Lansing Regional Sister Cities Commission in 1997.