|
See also:
No.1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|
No.
14 April 2007
Dear
friends,
The mosquitoes, ants
and gecko’s are back again. Outside the birds are busy
to make their nests and suddenly the sun breaks through
the clouds. Nature announced the end of the raining
season! Immediately we moved the solar cookers outside
into the sun, water started to boil and the coffee pot
began to percolate. You could feel the excitement! It is
wonderful to work again under the Sun.
50
parabolic and 100 box cookers
At the end of last year
the leaders of Solar Serve came together in order to
make plans for the new year. They had the impression
that 2007 will be a year for the people in and around
Danang. Later this impression was confirmed by dr.Hung,
who asked Solar Serve to work this year along the beach
of Danang and at the nearby mountains where minority
groups and poor people live. The leaders decided to help
the people with 50 parabolic cookers and 100 box cookers
and they will evaluate later in the year if more cookers
are needed. A new road was built near the beach of
Danang which leads to the ancient town Hoi An. Using the
solar cookers along this road will not only be a help
for the people, but it will also be an attraction for
the many tourist traveling from Danang to Hoi
An.
New
box cooker 
In our last newsletter we
told you about our new box solar cooker. Our staff have
been working and researching diligently. They used
different molds for making the inner and outside box
from aluminum. When they worked for weeks on this new
model, it became their own creation, which made them
very excited. Here two pictures of the box solar cooker
or see for more pictures on our web site: Click
Factory
closed
We
wanted to pay our yearly rent for the parabolic factory
in Tamky, but the landlord changed his mind and wanted
to sell the place and ignored our three-year contract.
The next day he told us that he had a huge debt in the
bank and that the police wanted to close the factory.
Immediately we moved everything out of the factory,
although we thought he made up this story in order to
force us out. After that we felt that we should move the
whole factory to Danang city, which is more suitable for
transport, buying materials, selling our product and
easy to get labour. Everything is in an early stage and
we have to consider many new things. At this time of
writing we have not found a new place in Danang yet.
Please stand with us!
New
machine for parabolic cookers
Dr.Hung of the University of Danang
signed a new contract with us for five years. We were
very pleased! Dr.Hung is also the director of the
Research Center for Pressure Equipment and Renewable
Energy, located at the University of Technology in
Danang. He invented a new machine, which presses
material into parabolic shapes. His machine was made
last year in Hanoi. Unfortunately, some material like
stainless steel was hard to shape, but aluminum formed
itself well. A special thing about the new parabolic
cooker is that it can be made in six separated parts,
which is easy for transport. For more information please
contact dr.Hung Duong Hoang (see for his address and
e-mail: Click
Here are two
pictures of his new machine and parabolic solar cooker.
For more pictures see our web site: Click
Vietnamese
businessmen
A Vietnamese man from
Ivory Coast introduced us to two overseas Vietnamese
businessmen. They were very interested in building
parabolic cookers and wanted to set up a small factory
in HCM city. They asked us for help. A few weeks ago
they told us that they had already set up a factory.
Their purpose is to do business with neighboring
countries in promoting and selling parabolic cookers.
There will be an open market. (Read more about business
experiences of solar companies in China: Click
We wish them all the best.
‘Our
1 world’
organization
Cathy Lam, an American-Vietnamese woman,
spon-sored several parabolic cookers last year. She made
her own web site: http://www.our1world.org/
So, read about
her family and their love for the people of Vietnam.
(Left a picture of one of her posters, promoting the use
of solar cookers). Mr. Bich, our director of Solar Serve
was invited with one of Cathy’s staff to attend a
conference in Hue city for meetings with Vietnamese and
foreign organizations.
Helping
people
We
want to make it clear again that our purpose of having a
project and running a factory is only for promoting
solar cookers and helping the local people with the use
of it. If we can make profits with our factory, it will
be used for helping people who cannot afford to buy a
solar cooker. We do not ask for donations but in the
last few months we had several people who helped us
financially. We mentioned already about Our 1 World
organization and also a friend from Thailand asked his
friends to sponsor several box cookers. Lately we
received an e-mail from a young Vietnamese man in Hanoi.
He had been reading our website and offered to help
Solar Serve with a financial gift. We were very touched.
Great to see local people helping each
other.
Regional
workshop from 16-17 April
Mister Tuan was introduced in our last
letter. He had to move out of his small working place
and we offered him to move into our information room.
Besides his normal work of repairing household
equipment, we asked him to make a mechanical clock from
bicycle parts for our new community solar cooker. He was
able to make the clock by watching pictures we took in
Spain and using an English construction manual (even his
English was limited). Amazing! Mr.Bich, our director
will attend the Asia Regional Solar Cooking and Food
Processing Workshop from 16-17 April in Kathmandu (more
on our web site: Click
on
‘Invitation Regional Workshop’). Mr. Bich hopes to get
more information in how to build the 8 -10m2 community
solar cooker and how to attach the mechanical
clock.
Wonderful
visitors
Sometimes foreign visitors want to serve
the Vietnamese people by doing some practical work. A
group from the Philippines came to visit us and helped
to paint the hallway of a restaurant were disabled
people were working. They were also able to meet local
people and to visit several high places like Bana and
Marble mountain. A few months ago a tour guide walked
out of the airport and passed by our information room.
Immediately he wanted to bring groups to Danang in order
for them to see the solar cookers project. Even two
Vietnamese who were working for a German company wanted
to make relationship with us for future purposes.
Sometimes we had visitors who sponsored our project.
They wanted to see the results. Unfortunately, we are
often working in remote areas, which make it not
possible to take visitors with us. Nevertheless, it is
great to have all these wonderful people around us and
we want to make time for them if our schedule and work
allows it.
Solar
links
If you want to know
more about solar cooking, and to explore the world of
solar cooking, you should open the next link,
Click
You
will be amazed of the different kind of models and how
many people are using it. It will be better if you make
one for yourself or family. It is a great tool to
educate children at home or in school and making them
aware of the environment. Two carton boxes and a sheet
of foil will do a lot. You can find enough plans on this
Solar Cookers International link. They put all this
information together and sometimes in your own language.
We are also thankful for Solar Cooker Workgroup
Sliedrecht Netherlands who inspired us in building and
using solar cookers. They have there own web site, with
useful hints for using their Dierkx type box cooker:
Click
This is
all the news for now. Thanks a lot for your friendship
and we hope you will stand with us in the coming solar
months.
Warm
solar greetings,
Solar
Serve Team
Called
To Serve
See also:
No.1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|
|
