Smokeless Stove: Rosa Cuc

Rosa Marina Cuc Pérez and her family of four have lived in her home for the past six years. She has had her smokeless stove for more than 6 months now and says she’s still getting re-accustomed to using it. Just recently, Rosa Marina’s father became sick and she left home to take care of him. She has now returned home full time.

Before having her smokeless stove, Rosa cooked on an open fire “pollo” stove made of adobe and wood. The smoke from the old stove affected her nose, eyes and throat and caused a lot of coughing.

She says the kids are especially becoming accustomed to the change and her son says it often, “Mama there isn’t smoke.”

She says it saves a lot of wood and now she can cook multiple items at once—”before I would cook my tamale, atoll, tortillas. Now I can cook it all on one fire because there are three burners”.

To the volunteers who came to build, Rosa Marina is grateful, she has the photo the left with her and sends this message to the group, “thank you for helping us. When you started to construct I could see you were beautiful people in the way you were hardworking. I’m so grateful for the stove because now the smoke doesn’t affect us. It has helped us a lot. I hope that God will bless and watch over you—thank you.”