Three new project videos available: Three people from West Bengal share their personal project story:

Stove User Ms. Mousumi Dolui: Charcoal money helped us, when my husband lost his job

Mrs. Mousumi lives in Bainan village in the Uluberia region of West Bengal. She uses the TLUD stove for one year now and she is very happy with it. Mrs. Mousumi says that her husband was not in favour of buying the stove in the beginning, since the family was in a tough financial situation by then. Only two months after they bought the stove, the Corona lockdown started in April 2020 and her husband lost his job. Mrs. Mousumi reports that she was very worried since their financial situation got even worse and she had her family to sustain including her 6 months old baby. Although also the charcoal FAs could not come to buy the charcoal generated by the TLUD stove during cooking during the lockdown, the FA promised he would come as soon as the lockdown is loosened and he will purchase the charcoal from her. Mrs. Mousumi says that she was very grateful when the FA kept his word and came to purchase the charcoal of two months. It was due to the money the family earned from selling the charcoal to the project, that they could survive these difficult times, till her husband found new work. With the charcoal money, Mrs. Mousumi could buy basic food items apart from the rice & pulses which they got free from the government.

Field Assistant Siddhartha Naskar: “I was able to support my family during Covid lockdown”

During the first Corona lockdown in India in April and May 2020, many people living in the villages lost their jobs in the neighboring towns and cities. Also, the charcoal collection chain of our India cookstove project was affected by the lockdown. Due to the temporary closure of restaurants and small businesses, which usually purchase our charcoal, project partners were unable to resell the coal collected from the stove users.

Siddhartha Naskar works as Field Assistant for the project and collects the charcoal generated by the stove during the cooking process from the users. Although the travel bans in India temporarily stopped the charcoal collection, the project kept paying the salaries for the Field Assistants during these two months. This was possible since atmosfair helped with a loan of 175,000 Euros. Siddhartha’s father and his elder brother unfortunately lost their jobs due to the Covid lockdowns. The whole family of seven members could survive for >5 months just because Siddhartha had this job and kept receiving his salary.

User and Health Worker Mrs Shyamali Maity: “The stove keeps our lungs healthy and strong”

Mrs. Shyamali Maity lives in Chapda village in the region Purba Medinipur in West Bengal. She works as a health agent in the region and she has been using her TLUD stove for 2.5 years now. Mrs. Maity reports, that she has been using a traditional mud stove before she bought the TLUD stove. She said that with the mud stove, she inhaled a lot of unhealthy smoke during cooking and that using the TLUD which has drastically reduced the amount of smoke they inhaled. As a health worker, she is convinced that the use of the TLUD stove has contributed to a better pulmonary function and thereby contributed to reducing the chance of a severe Covid course f disease or mortality. All her neighbours and friends use the TLUD and she hopes that the project will reach many more remote villages, so people there can also benefit from the health effect of the stoves.