MY DOMINICAN PROJECT
Proving that small changes can make a big impact
It was March 2010, and the humidity and heat hit me like a brick wall as I stepped off the plane in Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. I was part of a 24-person team from the New Life Church in Collingwood, Ont.; we would be working in the village of Ascension. I had been head of the mission’s committee for a number of years and been involved in sending groups each year, but this was my first time as part of a team. This was to be a one-time adventure for me, yet at the same time I had this feeling that I was there for a purpose.
The first full day in the village, our guide asked if anyone wanted to go on a tour, two of us responded yes. Our guide had spent
eight weeks the previous summer working in the village and was anxious to see her friends. Within a short time, we ran into a lovely Haitian lady who welcomed our guide with a cheerful smile and long hug. We were invited into her home, which was a concrete block structure approximately 15 feet by 30 feet with a couple of shuttered windows, a short privacy wall separating sleeping and living areas, and had little furniture. The first thing that caught my eye was a charcoal stove in the middle of the floor. I glanced at the windows; the shutters were all closed. So much was running through my mind regarding fumes, safety and more. Our guide knew what I was thinking and she explained to me that the women cooked inside because when they cooked outside any kind of breeze would use up the charcoal more quickly and they didn’t have enough money to buy more. To conserve charcoal, when they finished cooking, they would remove large pieces and set them on the floor to burn out. Cooking inside was causing respiratory problems, and in addition, the women and young children would bump into the stove and be severely burned by the charcoal and contents in the pots. I had found the reason I was there, to redesign the stove so they could cook outside.
I took a picture of the stove and after returning home, I examined the photo to try and figure out how to improve it.
A few weeks later, our guide returned and brought back one of the charcoal stoves to
give to me. I tore it apart and attached deflectors to it to guard the charcoal from the wind, but nothing I tried seemed to improve it. Back to the drawing board. Heading back to the hardware store, I bought a length of eight-inch stove pipe, brought it home and took a pair of metal cutting pliers to it. I added a screen to hold the charcoal and I had the first prototype of the new stove. A few further modifications and I had the final version. I ran numerous tests to make sure it would boil water and cook food, it did.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Now what to do with it? I was in Collingwood without any plans to return to the Dominican Republic. As I thought about it, I realized it would take longer than a oneweek trip to put this project into action. I sought the counsel of two friends who were behind me 100 per cent. I would raise enough funds to cover my expenses to stay in the village of Ascension for a month, as well as cover my expenses at home while I was away. The fundraising project brought in $7,200—enough to cover home expenses, travel expenses, lodging at the mission house in the village of Ascension and to bring our daughter Christa along to help.
First, I made another one-week trip with a group in February 2011 to meet with a metal worker to ensure he could follow my drawings and make the stove. Thanks to a translator and a lot of sign language, our first meeting seemed to get the message across. He used nothing more than a sharp, cold chisel and a hammer to cut out the metal parts for the stove. We would need a few minor measurement adjustments for the final project.
My month-long trip was planned from mid-june to mid-july 2011. I had planned on having eight stoves made, then purchasing a bucket of charcoal for each and finding the neediest residents to receive the free gift. The problem in getting them made was fitting the project into the schedule of the two workers I was using. Plus their concept of time didn’t fit into my usual nine-to-five schedule. It took about two-and-a-half weeks to complete the eight stoves.
In that time, I worked on fixing things around the mission house, while Christa played first-aider to kids with bumps and scratches, and also sat in on interviews with the locals and a doctor to ensure they were getting the proper medication and treatment.
When we presented the first woman with a stove and a bucket of charcoal, explaining to her that she didn’t have to cook inside anymore, the family was ecstatic. Each one gave me an emotional hug and thanked me in their native language. The hug really said it all; it is the same in any language. The project was a success: It not only gave the local women better cooking conditions, but also created additional employment for the two workers who eventually made enough stoves for every home in the village—just over 225. What may have seemed like a minor issue to us, was a major improvement for them.
Being able to give back to the people who had been so gracious to us was the experience of a lifetime for me. n