Jackson County Democrats

Solar Cookers Something as simple as a cardboard box, costing about $15, is saving women's lives in Africa. It is called a solar cooker and is making a huge difference to refugee women who fled the genocide in Darfur. Why? Having a solar cooker means women don't need to leave the refugee camp to gather firewood.

Outside the camp women are vulnerable to attack and rape. Safely inside the camp, women can be taught to make and use the solar cookers, and also earn income from assembling the cookers. The cookers can be made using two pieces of cardboard, with the addition of tinfoil and sunlight. The plentiful sunlight is converted into heat energy, which is then used for cooking.

The project has health benefits too. The cookers allow women to boil water, which kills off water-borne disease-causing microbes. To date, more than $1.6 million has been raised for the purchase of solar cookers by some 300 organizations, churches, and synagogues across the United States.

To participate in the distribution of solar cookers to refugees of Darfur and others, please visit www.solarcookerproject.org.

If you are interested in the organization supporting the Solar Cooker Project, please read on:

Jewish World Watch - A CALL TO CONSCIENCE... Shocked by revelations of mass killings in Darfur, Sudan, and remembering the Holocaust and the many post-Holocaust genocides, Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis of Valley Beth Shalom challenged the Jewish people to begin to honor the promise made following the Holocaust -- that "Never Again" would we be silent in the face of genocide. With that challenge, Jewish World Watch was established in October, 2004 as a Jewish response to horrors perpetrated by human beings against others.

This new and powerful collaboration of Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Reform synagogues throughout Southern California is dedicated to the mandate that we will never again stand idly by merely observing acts of inhumanity. Rather, we will educate and activate our community to rise up against such unspeakable acts. We will take responsibility for mobilizing the community and for helping to care for the victims of inhuman abuses. The isolated, hungry and battered people of Darfur are the immediate business of Jewish World Watch. We have successfully sponsored critical humanitarian projects in the refugee camps. As other global crises emerge in other countries, Jewish World Watch will expand its focus, and be a call to conscience to respond to human rights abuses wherever and whenever they occur. JWW is a member of the Save Darfur Coalition.