Below is a note I received with this video. Watch the video and post your thoughts.
Dear _____,
My solar cooking advocacy is moving forward but slowly. Here’s my latest solar cooking video. It’s an appeal for help to develop a more durable solar cooker for women in refugee camps.
If I only had a way to reach someone like Oprah with this information. She could so easily fund the research that would get this technology to the people who need it most. And she could spread the word about about the need for solar cookers in refugee camps to a huge audience. As you know, I’ve been trying to reach her for years without success. If you have any ideas, please let me know.
I recently co-wrote a new solar cooker training manual for the Jewish World Watch project in Chad and I continue to write, lecture, make videos for my solarwindmama channel and demonstrate solar cookers in the DC area and overseas.
I remain very frustrated with the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, which has marginalized solar cooking as an option to reduce the use of wood and dung for cooking fires in the developing world. I’m still trying to get the USG to support solar cooker technology for disaster and refugee situations, but so far without success. I’m also trying to raise funds to keep the solar cooking archive going on the internet.
Sales of my novel Farishta have been okay, but not great despite good reviews. I’ve been meeting with a lot of book clubs–some in person and some via Skype–and everyone really seems to enjoy the book–and appreciate how much they learn about Afghanistan while reading it. (It just got put on a high school reading list in Seattle.) I wish I had been able to make that Oprah connection back when she had her show. I do think she would have enjoyed Farishta and maybe even recommended it.
I hope you are well and not getting too frustrated with this whipsaw political environment that now seems to be a permanent condition in America.
All the best,
Pat
