Guatamalan Stove Project

Guatamalan Stove Project

Teresa attempts to initiate a community based project to provide safer, fuel-efficient alternative to open air fires in homes.

Resistance from Community
1)sustainable development, what does this entail.
2) gender roles in patriarchal society.

• GDP has increased over the past 20 years, but this has not resulted in increased quality of life. 
• Guatamala is among the top 6 countries in the world in population; 10% of the richest people enjoy 48% of all wealth whereas the poorest 10% survive on less than 1%. 
• HDI ranks the Guatamala lowest of all Latin American Countries in terms of health, education and economics next to Haiti. 
• Overall poverty is at 60%. 
• Agriculture is the primary way of living. 

Guatemalan Stove Project;

• open-air stove is the primary way for people to cook food
• Stove threatens the health and well-being of families.  and community. It causes respiratory infetctions; is a burn threat; the smoke pollutes the air and home. A lot of wood is needed to sustain the stove. 

Solution Needs: 

• Solution needs to be a problem that can be solved using local labor and resources to enhance economic development. 
• Needs to be a simple idea - easily implemented.

Implementation Barriers:

• Teresa met with people to develop a blueprint for stoves that could be locally built. 
• Teresa fundraised to raise money to build stoves. 
• There are practical constraints for implementation that can only be facilitated by governmental structures. 

Collaborative Group Project 9/11:

With your team, apply the framework for understanding community and organizational problems from pp. 100–101 in your Social Work Macro Practice text to the Guatemalan Stove Project case study.

Research from Netting et al. (2017) notes, "In the complex communities of today, however, with so many social and community problems competing for limited resources, data must be compiled to document the size and scope of a problem or need" (p. 100).  In terms of the Guatemalan Stove Project, Teresa needed to consider the limitations for implementation. This included working to design blueprint for the project that could be carried out locally by laborers, utilizing locally-sourced materials.  Netting et al. (2017) notes, "In collecting supporting data, the change agent should think in terms of the entire “circle” of information needed to understand the presenting problem or condition. This means that data collection will not necessarily be limited to the local community, neigh- borhood, or organization that is the focus of the change effort" (p. 100). There is a need to collect both qualitative and quantitative data in order to successfully carry out the next phase of this project.  The qualitative data could include interviews with community members to assess the the success of the stove, to determine if it was well-received. The quantitative data is critical in informing community members and donors, about the costs to implement the project.  Both will be critical in determining the success of the Guatemalan Stove project.