Everyday, over 3 billion people in the developing world cook food on open fires or inefficient cook stoves fueled by coal or solid biomass. This action jeopardizes human health, contributes to household & community air pollution, and impacts environmental devastation by depleting forests and increasing soil erosion.  An estimated 4 million premature deaths occur every year due to exposure from toxic smoke emissions.  Consequently, women and children are disproportionately impacted by household air pollution.

SilverFire’s mission as a leading designer of clean cook stoves is to protect humans from the health and environmental impact of emissions from open fires, inefficient cook stove designs and the destruction of forests, due to illegal charcoal production and inefficient fuel use.  SilverFire is headquartered in Eugene, Oregon.   Our humanitarian stove program is structured on a direct FOB unit stove cost for developing World locations.  This specialized price schedule is not applicable for developed World markets.  Please contact us at sales@silverfire.us for pricing and the scope of your humanitarian project.  Our Survivor rocket stove, Hunter Chimney stove, and skirted Dragon Pot are 3 of our most popular humanitarian products.  

SilverFire 2017 Stove Donations to Puerto Rico

Interested in making a difference in Puerto Rico?  Our humanitarian work was for actual stoves in the field and transportation costs:

SilverFire thinks it makes more sense to donate stoves for families to sanitize water, cookware, and cook a meal while being surrounded by free biomass after the 2017 hurricane season. Instead wasted FEMA tax payern dollars sending generators to Puerto Rico, despite limited available fuel and infrastructure.  

Lunch break!  All Hand Volunteers with SilverFire Survivor rocket stove, Virgin Islands 2017.

Our 1st donated pallet of Hunter Chimney stoves headed to Puerto Rico in early November (photo below).  We will continue to assist, but we need assistance to cover humanitarian stove costs and transportation costs to Puerto Rico.  We partnered with University of Oregon's UCEDD sister program in Puerto Rico, so we could get stoves to our donated stoves into the hands of families with children with disabilities.  We contacted several NGO's and Aid organizations, but none appeared interested in assisting Puerto Rico, just like Donald Trump.  We are tired of seeing non-profits that claim to be active in the stove and the aid sector, but appear to be using most donations for staff salaries and other perks.  Our donations were strictly earmarked for actual stoves and transportation costs.  While the Global Cookstove Alliance and other NGO's executives and organizations members enjoy gourmet meals and travel to conferences Worldwide and talk about implementing stoves, little is done.  Unfortunately, your hard earned donations often are not going where you intended them to go.  SilverFire actually spends 100% on actual stoves and transportation costs only.

Puerto Rico Update:  December 2017, 100 days post Hurricane Maria.  In Virginia visiting grandkids when notified stoves had finally arrived prior to Christmas holiday, and was requested to come immediately to Carolina, Cuguas, and the Southern side of islands to train staff with stoves from MAVI, the University of Puerto Rico, and others that assist clients and families with disabilities.  It was snowing in Virginia at the time, but after a quick trip to Goodwill, I was outfitted with hot weather apparel and left immediately for San Juan.  The north side of the island and historic San Juan did not reflect the conditions to the South, that still was without power.   Deaths from folks on respirators, ventilators, C-Pap machines, or simply required refrigeration for insulin were still ongoing, however were tallied as natural deaths, not Hurricane related.  The actual deaths were hurricane related, due to lack of electrical infrastructure, despite official reports otherwise.  Many of the small FEMA generators were not capable of 24/7 operation, lack of fuel, or money for fuel were additional factors exacerbating situation.

Ironically, this woman was Maria, she lost everything. She and her children with disabilities rode out Hurricane Maria in her bathroom.  She had a FEMA placard placed on her home identifying qualification for a free tarp posted earlier in November, yet as of Christmas, none had yet to appear.  She now at least has a stove to cook, sanitize water, and clean, as she tries to put her life back together.

This is Isabella below and her father.  Six feet of ocean water rushed through home, Isabella almost drown while hanging on and floating her father (in the wheel chair in photo background) by the collar and holding on to railing.  Their home was also destroyed, water is boiling on Hunter Chimney stove in wok.  She appreciated the lack of smoke and plenty of free fuel available everywhere post hurricane.

Isabella's neighbor.  Our stove is her only option to cook, after ocean surge ruined her home and left her range un-operable.  there also is no gas infrastructure available.  They didn't think much of FEMA's 3 day recommendation for emergency food.  It is now over 100 days post Hurricane Maria and the Southern side of the island is still in real need.  This situation is still a disaster for countless American Puerto Rico citizens.

Spring 2017:  SilverFire in Myanmar  

In Spring 2017 SilverFire was requested to come to Myanmar for humanitarian stove consulting and inservice stove training with the Myanmar Forest Service.  An estimated 90% of rural families burn wood on a 3 brick or 3 stone fires, exacerbating lung disease from inefficient cooking practices.  Myanmar's deforestation is now a national crisis.  Traditional cooking shown below.  Note wood paste applied on Myanmar woman's cheeks, this is home made UV sunblock and is also associated with anti-fungal properties.

Intense wood collection efforts are a daily requirement to cook and sanitize water for rural poor.  

This is an indoor kitchen / pantry for multiple families, note indoor 2 brick range.

SilverFire Survivor rocket stove inservice, Forest Service Center Naypyidaw, Myanmar.  10,000 clean burning cookstoves gifted by Chinese government, to assist poor women and children.  Demonstrating our low fuel use, clean burning stoves!

Marshall Islands Project:  This container of stoves were purchased with UNDP (United Nations Development Plan) funding, and coordinated by the KIO organization based in Majuro.  Our products were chosen over StoveTec and EcoZoom, due to greater efficiency and durability.  SilverFire provided all stoves at humanitarian pricing and donated skirted Dragon Pots to maximize reductions of required fuel, emissions, and reduce time to boil for these folks.  The primary fuel used in the Pacific Islands is palm fronds and spathe, used to sanitize water, cookware, and to cook a meal.  Well designed cookware can have a dramatic impact on the outcomes of a successful humanitarian project.

Stoves & Dragon Pots were distributed to outer Marshall Island inhabitants by KIO volunteers in small boats.  A KIO volunteer below demonstrates how to insert palm fronds into combustion chamber and use our Dragon Pot on top of stove.

Here is our Dragon Pot at work in Kiribati for a humanitarian meal (formerly known as Gilbert Islands) near the Tarawa Atoll.

Below is a stove operation video of our most popular humanitarian stoves, The Silver Fire Survivor Rocket Stove, and Hunter Chimney stove.   This video was done for a Malaysian audience that did not speak English, so it is a great visual "how to" demonstration with just music.  These stoves are demonstrated indoors, to show how clean they can burn with dry optimal biomass.  Appropriate real world application is to use a side-fed rocket stove outdoors since they have no chimney and to vent all emissions outdoors with any chimney stove.  This was a simple how to light and use the stoves and the importance of using dry fuel demonstration only.