StoveTeam International

Partner Description:

StoveTeam International (STI) is a non-profit organization that aims to bring safe, affordable, and fuel-efficient stoves to developing countries by helping to establish locally owned and operated stove factories. Its primary product, the Ecocina cook stove, uses 50% less wood than an open cooking fire, and reduces harmful emissions by 70%.

By enabling local entrepreneurs to establish new production factories, STI seeks to create local employment opportunities while also reducing deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. The Ecocina stove is also designed to decrease the risk of both respiratory illnesses and burns as the exterior of the stove remains cool to the touch while in use.

Originally founded in 2008, Nancy Hughes began StoveTeam International after a medical volunteer trip to Guatemala where she observed burns and upper respiratory diseases in children and women caused by cooking over open fires. Within their first year of operations, STI developed and built the Ecocina stove and opened the first locally-owned factory in El Salvador. Today STI counts six locally-owned factories in five countries (Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico) and has sold over
37, 000 stoves, improving the lives of more than 280,000 people in Mexico and Central America. On average, these factories also provide new employment to 9 individuals.

To date, StoveTeam International has been featured by Peace Corps Magazine, Rotarian Magazine, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, AARP Magazine and the Oregon Quarterly. Nancy Hughes has been the recipient of numerous awards, such as the International Purpose Prize (from Encore.org, financed by the John Templeton Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies) and has been named a White House Champion of Change and a CNN Hero. 

A unique lending approach:

Together, Kiva and StoveTeam International will focus on expanding the reach of local stove factories by providing loans for owners to establish Ecocina distribution centers in surrounding areas. Kiva funding will enable these factory owners to provide stoves to distribution centers on credit, allowing them to increase accessibility to these safer and more efficient stoves.

Additionally, STI is currently working with Microsol, a French social enterprise that provides efficient and fair access to carbon markets around the world, with the aim of securing carbon credit funding to lower the price of the cookstoves. Along with the Kiva loans, the organization is hoping to make their stoves more affordable and further accessible to those who need them most.

Stoveteam International joined Kiva through our Experimental Partnership Program, and has therefore received a lighter level of due diligence. Accordingly, loans associated with this partner carry a higher level of risk than typical Kiva loans.