SOS’s Tree Chatter provides both quantifiable and immeasurable benefits to the people of Honduras. While reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, trees saved, and health benefits realized through the utilization of solar power as opposed to firewood are ongoing and difficult to accurately compute, these effects are significant. It is estimated that the use of just one of Tree Chatter’s solar oven systems can save 150 tons of wood annually, resulting in the reduction of 277 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. The long-term health of oven operators, the slowing of Honduras’ deforestation, and the lessening of greenhouse gas production combine to contribute innumerous gains for Hondurans and the global community.Additional achievements of Tree Chatter are simple to calculate, yet just as complex in their ramifications. Each bakery is given a solar oven that reaches temperatures in excess of 400° F. This oven is specifically designed for developing-world bakery operations and has an effective life of at least 20 years. It comes equipped with propane back-up system, which allows it to be utilized at night or during the rainy season. Each location will be equipped with a 90-piece Micro-Sun-Bakery package, which includes: 42 durable bread pans, 9 cake pans, 24 flat pans, 2 heavy duty rolling pins, 2 dough scrapers, 6 hot pads, 1 rugged insect-proof flour bin, 1 wire whip and 3 large mixing bowls. Each solar oven system provides employment for six to twelve women who prepare, bake, sell, and deliver goods that have been baked in a solar oven. These women are then encouraged to reinvest in the local environment by planting fruit tree seedlings. Since solar power is free, sun bakery bread is less expensive than bread produced in typical bakeries. Thus, solar bakeries stimulate flailing economies through both employment and the provision of reasonably priced goods for sale.
The ovens may also be used by volunteer organizations to feed the hungry, employing local women to make food that is then given away to the needy in the community. Each oven is capable of both baking and preparing meals in large quantities – 1,200 meals per day – and therefore may also be used for refugee programs, feeding centers, hospitals, orphanages, or prisons. Currently, Tree Chatter’s focus is on utilizing the ovens for micro-bakeries as small businesses.
The hope of a better future for women, children, and the poor of Honduras
is arguably the greatest achievement of Tree Chatter.