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In a remote mountain village in Peru, life had remained nearly unchanged for generations. Idyllic in many ways, perhaps, but not entirely so.

That’s the way it had always been done.

One village resident, a mother of four, tells how, like many rural households in Peru, she cooked for her family using open-stove fires in her house. Smoke filled the house, soot blackened surfaces, and maintaining a supply of firewood was a constant concern. “That’s the way it had always been done,” she explained. Inefficient cookstoves in use in Peru and worldwide are also, as you know, a major contributor to climate change.

There is a better way.

All across Qori Q’oncha, Peru, with your support, this project has installed 106,000 improved cookstoves that ventilate unhealthy smoke and soot from households, reduce wood burning and forest destruction by as much as 40%, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 450,000 tonnes annually. For that young mother of four, a new cookstove changed everything. Her house is clear of smoke and soot. She saves money by using less firewood. She saves hours every day in cleaning and cooking chores, and her family doesn’t get sick from smoke inhalation. “We are happier,” she says, “things are much better.” Over half the families in this village already have new cookstoves, and soon every family in the village will have one.

With a good idea, we can do anything.

Something else changed in this village, something even bigger. The success of the cookstove project brought environmental awareness and empowerment, and the community began to ask, “How else can we improve things?” They realized, for instance, that with the use of firewood reduced by the new cookstoves, their forests could be managed. Clear-cutting ceased, wood is now selectively cut, and, for every tree harvested, two new trees are planted. Awareness and empowerment: “The cookstove project made us realize that together, with a good idea, we can do anything.”

You help make this happen. With your support and a good idea, we—all of us—can do anything. Thank you.