Profile of a Mujer Solar: Adelina del Rosario Sánchez Cordero
Adelina del Rosario Sánchez Cordero is 33 years old and lives in Sabana Grande, Totogalpa, Madriz, Nicaragua, with her three daughters, mother, and grandmother, cat, dog, and 15 chickens. She likes: cooking, reading, hosting foreigners and getting to know new people. She dislikes: lies, saying, ¨I cannot lie¨ and machismo men.
Solar Cooking
Adelina makes many things in her solar cooker, her favorite of which are solar cookies, followed closely by solar-toasted coffee, plantains, eggs, and cakes. During the summer, also called the dry season, she uses her cooker constantly. She uses it every day to cook lunch, to keep food warm for dinner, and to protect food overnight because it is one of the cleanest places to keep it. During the winter, also called the rainy season, she cannot use it very much. However, she still uses it to heat up food sometimes or to keep food warm for volunteers who show up late for lunch.
She says that she would recommend one to any friend because it´s important. ¨We´re using less wood, the food is more hygienic, we save time, and we avoid respiratory diseases,¨ she says. Adelina also loves that she can leave beans cooking in it while doing other tasks, like washing clothes, and not have to worry about any danger.
Testing
As an avid user, Adelina has helped multiple times with experiments on the solar cooker. She gathered time, temperature, and weight data for an investigation of coffee roasting initiated by Dr. Richard Komp. She also was valuable to the coffee toasting investigations of ETHOS students, Lori Hanna and Eric Urban, during the summer of 2006.
Las Mujeres Solares
¨Las Mujeres Solares were organized to discover [uses for] and take advantage of solar energy,¨ according to Adelina. As a Mujer Solar, she always goes to meetings, she is on the committee of women that sells art and food at the end of the Solar Culture Courses, and she works many hours each month. She cooks for volunteers, built adobe bricks for El Centro Solar, and works in the garden at El Centro Solar. She personally takes advantage of many aspects of membership. Monthly, she shops in La Tienda Verde (¨The Green Store¨), purchasing clothes, shampoo, purses, and many other essentials. She also purchased her solar system, that provides her home with electricity for three light bulbs, through Las Mujeres Solares. Her favorite purchases thus far have been her solar panels, shampoo, and clothes.
Her two high-schoolers have scholarships from Las Mujeres Solares, which they earn by writing a letter, having over a 75% average in school, and keeping a small tire-garden at home. Most recently, she took out a loan from Las Mujeres Solares to make adobes for an addition to her house. In fact, she is paying off her loan by hosting Lori Hanna this summer, instead of receiving cash. ¨This is a good benefit of being a member,¨ Adelina says.
Can You Do This?
Contact Adelina by sending an email to lasmujeressolares@saluddelsol.org.
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Pictures (click for larger view)
