International Program updates for Spring 2008

Honduras
The 2008 Honduras EcoTour was a great success. Nine TWP members, including three board members (Gerry Conway Jr., Gerry Conway Sr., and Jeremy Foster), and three TWP staff (Stuart Conway, Allison Shaw, and Heather Herrell) joined Honduran guide and organizer Irma Fernandez de Gallardo from the Mesoamerican Ecotourism Alliance for an adventure that ranged from stove building and tree planting in the Guacerique watershed to a visit to the famed Mayan ruins at Copan. The group also visited Irma's butterfly farm in Copan, and enjoyed a stay at the incredible Pico Bonito Eco Lodge. Congratulations to our two most senior Ecoturistas, Ellen and Ellis Harris, who are 84 and 92 years old and made it on most of the hikes! Check back towards the end of 2008 for details on 2009's EcoTour.

Stove Program update
TWP's micro-enterprise stove program recently took a giant step forward for womankind. Ignacio Osorto and Stuary Conway visited several potential sites for the new AHDESA office and stove factory in Honduras. We'll be making an offer to buy a one acre property with a nearly completed building, parking area, and water tank that is on the immediate outskirts of Tegucigalpa. The building will be modified to fit our needs as an office and factory. The property also has room for a small tree nursery and other buildings, such as a small training center. We'll be applying to Climate Care/Pioneer Carbon for some of the funding from carbon offsets for the building remodel and other costs, and will seek funding from major donors and foundations as well.

Haiti
Our partner in Haiti, the Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team (AMURT), has educated seven communities about the Rocket stove and completed follow-up visits. The AMURT educators have also evaluated the first round of 42 Rocket stoves, checking with the villagers to make sure they're satisfied with its design and performance. We are now ready for Phase 2 where we will build 400 Rocket stoves over the next three months. In July, funding from Alternative Gifts International will allow us to expand the project significantly.

Stuart Conway and Gerry Conway Jr. will be traveling Haiti from March 30-April 6 to visit the stove and tree planting projects in the Anse Rouge area of northwestern Haiti. We are in discussions with Dan Wolf of the International Lifeline Fund (ILF) to possibly partner with us to expand the Rocket stove project further. ILF has built and distributed 15,000 Rocket stoves in Darfur, Sudan as Dan reported at the ETHOS stove conference recently in Seattle.