Cooking in the Developing World

When Nancy Hughes traveled to Guatemala as a volunteer cook, she learned that one of the most dangerous things a woman in the developing world can undertake is cooking for her family. Spending hours over indoor fires, the women also often carried babies who were forced to inhale smoke equivalent to three packs of cigarettes per day.

Hughes was familiar with fuel-efficient stoves, so she and her team developed the Ecocina, a portable stove that is not only safe but saves wood and cuts particulate matter and carbon emissions by 70 percent. Realizing that Guatemala alone needed 6 million stoves, Hughes established factories in the developing world that would produce and sell stoves, rather than just distribute them. And so began Stove Team International.

My Generation sat down with this 2011 Purpose Prize winner to learn how her inspiring work is bringing safe, low-cost stoves to thousands of people.