SCI has spread solar cooking skills and technologies where they are needed most. Over 30,000 families have benefited directly SCI's field projects and countless others have used SCI's resources to learn how to make and use solar cookers and teach others to do the same. This nomination is for their special initiative Initiative to provide solar cookers for Chad and Darfur.

The CooKit, an SCI innovation, is a simple, cost-effective solar cooker for refugee situations and elsewhere. CooKits are elegantly simple, often made cardboard and aluminum foil or similar reflective material. They requires a dark, covered pot and one high-temperature plastic cooking bag per month. With a f ew hours of sunshine, the CooKit cooks tasty meals for five-six people at gentle temperatures like a slow cooker ideal for cooking food and preserving nutrients without burning or drying out. Coolkit is a local innovation of the conventional solar cooker that is cheaper than other household box-and-contentrator-type solar cookers. It does not require frequent adjustments to face the sun and is also easier to mass produce in Africa. It can be locally assembled. CooKits for Iridimi camp in Chad are hand-assembled on-site, providing an income generating activity for refugee women.

Individuals § Improved environment for cooking§ Reduced drudgery of cooking for women and children; § Cost of cooking is greatly reduced. One solar CooKit saves 1/3 of a poor family s income that would have otherwise been used to buy firewood and charcoal.§ Reduced the risks of fire accidentsEconomy Production of solar cookers is an income generating opportunity for women who are assembling them locally. There is considerable saving of fuel for cooking. Environment: The environmental benefits of solar cookers are now widely known - One solar CooKit saves 2 tons of trees in a year.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Lutheran World Federation, the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), Don Bosco, and World Vision. The organisation influences the acceptance and acceleration of clean energy through dissemination of solar cookers in different regions of the world.Effect on individuals - Budget savings for institutional cooking fuels and disaster relief situations. In some regions distribution of biomass and fossil fuels are subsidized by aid agencies. Broad use of solar cookers can decrease these costs so that more people can benefit these humanitarian funds.Effect on business organisations - Solar cooker manufacturing and assembly; Solar cooker sales; Solar cooker repair; Solar food businesses such as restaurants, bakeries or cateringEffect on government - Reduced imports of and subsidies on biomass and fossil fuels; Where forests are disappearing and many people suffer fuel shortages, solar cookers reduce families' fuel wood needs by 30-50%; Electric companies that have trouble meeting peak hour demand because of heavy use of stoves and air conditioners can reduce that demand by promoting use of solar cookers.Benefits to environmental programs: Two billion people rely on wood and charcoal for cooking fuel. Solar cooking alleviates the conflict between their basic needs and the need to preserve earth's dwindling forests; Biomass and petroleum fueled cooking fires pollute the air and contribute to global warming. Solar cookers are pollution-free, and, when used in large numbers, may help curb global warming; Kitchens remain cool while food solar cooks outdoors. This reduces the load on air conditioners and refrigerators in summer months, saving fossil fuels (and lowering utility bills).

The efforts of SCI have demonstrated to the world the possibility of using solar cookers, particularly Coolkit, as an alternative to conventional cooking. The direct impact on mainstreaming of clean energy by SCI is through dissemination of solar cookers across the world.Quantitative estimates of the impact of solar cookers in general are given above. The specific impact of cool-kit is its utility in remote situations such as emergency or refugee camps.

The ecological, social and economic advantages of solar cookers have been discussed above.

SCI works with other solar cooking promoters to build awareness and support for solar cooking and solar water pasteurization among policy makers in government, business and humanitarian agencies at local, regional, national and international levels.
Through its tireless volunteer United Nations (UN) representatives in New York and Geneva, SCI advocates on behalf of solar cooking solutions at meetings and forums of international importance. These efforts include promoting solar cookers as tools for achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals ? eight goals to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women by the year 2015.
To facilitate collective actions, SCI spearheaded formation of the Solar Cookers International Association (SCIA). As the SCIA grows and its system of regional networks takes hold, promoters in many regions should also find it easier to get regionally-specific information and guidance.
To hasten the global spread of solar cooking and solar water pasteurization, SCI hosts regional and international solar cooking conferences, bringing promoters together to exchange strategies and explore collaborations. SCI co-sponsored international conference in the United States (1992), Costa Rica (1994), India (1997), and Spain (2006). SCI attends other conferences.