Like the students in our pilot project, the students in the second project group are still working with paint and foil and glue out in the hot sun and dust. Storage of tools, supplies, and equipment are a constant challenge. A secure facility out of the sun would allow for much stronger progress.

This is Helen, who was one of the younger students in our pilot project, almost four years ago. Her father died some years back, and life is difficult for Helen and her mother. Helen uses her Panel Stove Cooker regularly, and Camily reports that she takes very good care of it, carefully folding it at night and storing it near her head where she sleeps. Despite being a few years old now and in regular use, her cooker is running bright and strong. These plywood based cookers are holding up well when cared for. A project budget that allows for the use of wood products may run a bit higher, but the gain in durability is often considerable. Hundreds of youth in this community at the edge of Eldoret want to learn the science of making and testing solar cookers that work and have the chance to earn the materials to make their own tested solar cooker in the process. Many of these young people live in tents or other makeshift shelters. Fuel is scarce, water is not safe. Each solar cooker a student brings home helps an entire family. You can help more young people like Helen enjoy the benefits of simple solar thermal cooking, while also helping them to learn methods of thought and process that will help them in many areas of their lives. With your help, we can create a generation of young people who will expect solar cookers to be a part of their adult lives, and who also know how to make one if they do not have one, or how to take an existing one and think of ways to make it better. With your help, we can turn a trickle into a steady stream.

Welcome to our online support page. Our second basic project team, innovators of the Hexagon Solar Cooker, have concluded a very successful project with a splendid celebration, and the new camera has been very helpful in documenting our progress. We have enough funds to begin a third project group, though the young people will still be working out in the dust and hot sunshine, and Camily and Gaudenziah must still try to juggle the needed supplies and tools with inadequate storage and work space. If more people could pledge even a small monthly amount, this could change. Just one hundred people who could pledge six dollars a month could fund the whole facility and materials for prototypes. If you have any friends who might be interested in helping this unique approach to solar cooking dissemination to grow, please tell them about our pilot program in Kenya and share links. We are a terrific organization for people who can only give a small amount but like to feel that they are making a real difference.

Donations are not tax deductible at this time, though we are setting in place accountability standards which will help us to achieve that status in the future if we choose to do so

, but it is an expensive process.  At this point we prefer to direct more of our scant resources to the projects rather than to legal fees, accountants, and lawyers.  We are a legally registered Unincorporated Nonprofit Association but not 501c3.  If you wish to make a large donation and tax deductibility is an issue, please contact us.  In some circumstances we may be able to find another organization to act as a pass-through.

Our online donations are currently handled by PayPal (though you may use your credit card, and you do not need a PayPal account or password to donate).  PayPal and other online services do collect a small fee for handling, as do the charge card services.  If you prefer to send a check, you can make it out to SSCSP and send it to:

Student Solar Cooking Science Projects
1185 Chaney Rd.
Viola ID 83872

One of our challenges in attaining a facility for our pilot program in Kenya is assurance that once a space is rented, we will be able to continue to cover the rent and very basic running expenses.  Regular pledges—even very small ones—would be immensely helpful in reaching this goal.  Just one hundred people who could pledge six dollars (US) per month could make that miracle possible.  We have worked out a way on PayPal to make this easier for you, so you don’t have to remember to send your donation each month (though you may cancel at any time if your circumstances change).  PayPal will refer to it as a “subscription”.  You are subscribing to a brighter future for young Kenyans and their families.  Here are the options:

A special thank you from Kenya.

Donate $6.00. per month for 12 months.

Donate $12.00 per month for 12 months.

Donate $25.00 per month for 12 months.

Donate $50.00 per month for 12 months.

Regular pledges can work miracles in these young lives, just as the sun makes the miracle of cooking with free fuel and no pollution possible.  Pliedgers are sunbeams in the lives of these smart students.  They are not asking for the moon, but at least a hundred Sunbeams added to the team would be very helpful.  Please join us if you can, and add your beam to the growing light of solar cooking in Eldoret, Kenya.

If you prefer to make a one-time donation, please use the donation button below.  Thank you for supporting our bright solution!