Solar Oven Partners (SOP)

Bringing solar ovens and education to families where fuel costs deplete resources for food and other necessities.

Approximately half of the people in the Dominican Republic, Sierra Leone and Four Corners Navajo Country in New Mexico and Arizona face food, health and economic insecurities. According to the International Monetary Fund, Sierra Leoneans experience some of the highest poverty rates in Africa.

Using fossil fuels, charcoal or wood for cooking can harm a family’s health, deplete its economic resources and destroy the environment. Buying cooking fuel uses money that could buy nutritious food and other quality-of-life options like children’s education and health care. For the people in isolated rural communities served by Four Corners Native American Ministries (FCNAM), reducing the use of propane to cook in summer months means they can afford fuel for winter.

In the Dominican Republic and Sierra Leone, many families cook outdoors over open fires.  Frequent smoke exposure contributes to eye and respiratory problems not only for a mother but also for the young children she must care for as she cooks. Burns are a constant danger. Many Four Corners families cook on unsafe wood stoves that produce smoke and soot.

Using trees for fuel is environmentally dangerous as deforested hillsides are subject to landslides, erosion and soil degradation. Using the sun’s power to cook lessens environmental and physical harm.

Standardized components for solar ovens are fabricated in three supervised workshops in South Dakota. When they are distributed, help is provided for assembly as well as instruction on the oven’s use and care.

Each solar oven costs about $200 to manufacture and deliver to a trained solar cook.

Each oven contains three cooking pots, a bread pan, potholders, measuring cups and spoons, a thermometer, plus the Water Pasteurization Instrument (WaPI) for pasteurizing water or milk. Recipients contribute a small donation to get an oven.

By cooking with the free energy of the sun, the limited resources of a family are made available for other needs. The personal investment to attend training and pay for the solar oven – though less than the actual cost – provides amazing return on investment with savings in fuel and bottled water costs over years.

A solar oven can cook eggs, chicken, meat, fish and vegetable, prepare local grains, rice or pasta and bake bread or cakes without using fuel. Cooks who help train recipients demonstrate how popular local dishes can be cooked by the sun.

Building relationships among SOP volunteers and recipients strengthens the broader network of caring. Distributing solar ovens in the name of Christ is a concrete example of God’s love reaching out in response to the cries of the poor. It is Good News.

For 25 years, SOP has distributed more than 24,000 ovens. Demand for ovens continues to grow in the Dominican Republic, Sierra Leone and Four Corners Native American Ministry in Navajo Country.

Solar Oven Projects seeks to transition families struggling to make ends meet from fossil-fuel cooking methods to solar cooking methods to save money and improve nutrition. We also strive to cultivate mutuality in mission among beneficiaries and trainers.

With the support of this Advance funding, we seek to expand the number of VIM teams engaged in the project and increase the number of families and communities being served.

Solar Oven Partners began in Haiti, then transitioned to the Dominican Republic when conditions in Haiti became volatile. SOP signed a covenant agreement with the Dominican Evangelical Church in 2016, the UMC in Sierra Leone in 2017, and a partnership was established with the Four Corners Native American Ministry, (FCNAM) in Shiprock, New Mexico in 2023.

Solar cooking is emission-free cooking! Oven-using families experience the health benefits of healthier food, safer water, and elimination of respiratory issues, eye injuries and burns from open fires.

Solar cooking makes economic sense. Cooking more meals without buying cooking fuel means more discretionary income and improved quality of life for families. We know more ovens in use means a reduction of fossil fuel use and the saving of trees that control erosion.

One family at a time, one community at a time, Solar Oven Partners (SOP) will continue to enhance sustainable physical, economic and environmental well-being by providing ovens and training for solar cooking and water pasteurization.

We want to expand funding so that we can build more ovens and send more Volunteers in Mission to distribute them. With problem-solving and learning together through cultural exchange and building ovens, both SOP volunteers and in-country oven recipients become examples of Christ’s love in action.