According to the International Energy Agency, 1.3 billion people do not have access to electricity and 2.7 billion do not have clean cooking conveniences.
TWP's solution to this problem is to bring sustainable energy solutions to impoverished areas in Central America, Haiti and to Native American reservations in the form of clean cookstoves, cleantech products, reforestation, green job training, renewable energy solutions and more.
Why are sustainable solutions the answer to solving energy poverty? TWP believes that if you can teach the people how to best utilize their resources, those resources will last longer and sustain the population further.
"We want our projects to continue well after we leave a community," said Megan Maiolo-Heath, TWP Marketing and Communications Manager, "we can of course go in and work with the local people to develop projects that are going to address their needs, but really, what we want is to be able to step out of the situation and have them carry out the work without needing us."
TWP's sustainable projects benefit the communities they help socially, environmentally and economically.
"With one individual project, we are addressing multiple issues. So I will give you an example: clean cookstoves. Our clean cookstoves are built locally using local materials, local people — so there is job creation," Maiolo-Heath. When a family has a stove built in their home they are decreasing their indoor air pollution by up to 80 percent, they are decreasing their daily fuel use by up to 70 percent — so there is healthier families, there is more money in their pockets because they are not spending as much money on fuel, there is less deforestation in the surrounding environment. I mean that is with one small stove that costs $75 and that will last them for years."
If you are interested in getting involved with TWP you can sign up for volunteer email alerts, look for internship openings or donate.
Hi Ricki,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very informative and detailed post, thank you! I chose this post because TWP is actually someone that the company I work for in Fort Collins- partners with... They are Custom Blending, but their baking brand, Rodelle actually partners a lot with TWP. The owners of Custom Blending are currently over in Uganda working on the Stove Project with TWP right now! If you ever decide to maybe do a blog post about local companies and their contributions, perhaps Rodelle would be a food one for you to look at. I've included the link to their global outreach programs if you're interested: http://www.rodellekitchen.com/the-brand/rodelle-and-twp.
Thanks for the great post, it's about time I learned more about TWP!