Derk Rijks

Derk Rijks was a volunteer with the KoZon Foundation. He worked extensively in the Darfur refugee camps in Chad with his organization, Tchad Solaire. Dr. Rijks was an engineer with Agrometeorological Applications Associates in France.
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*October 2022: We have received an announcement that Derk Rijks has passed away.
*May 2018: Derk Rijks reports: 4000 Darfuri women at Iridimi Refugee Camp in Chad have qualified for and received Carbon Credits from the UN Gold Standard Foundation. In principle, the credits from each period of two years should enable them to replace non-functional solar cookers in the next two years, and thus cook for only $1-2 USD per month. In collaboration with the American Meteorological Society (AMS), a study was done on the frequency and length of periods of sunshine in their area. The Annual results, in the zones where the camps exist, ran more than 300 to 320 days for two cookers, a.m. and p.m., plus an additional 10 to 20 days for one cooker per day. This study was published by the AMS in their monthly journal, one of the most important journals for publications in this subject area. We are seeking coordinates of other camps that qualify for Carbon Credits. We will help the other camps get carbon credits, but the initial financing must come from outside the camps. To share coordinates of refugee camps in or near Chad that may benefit from Carbon Credit funding, contact Derk Rijks, Agrometeorological Applications Associates. Contact: rijks.agrometeo@wanadoo.fr
*May 2013: Solar cookers preparing food for 130,000 people daily at the refugee camps in Chad - Derk Rijks, a volunteer with the KoZon Foundation, recently responded to Jewish World Watch with this note of appreciation. "Last week I was at the Touloum Refugee Camp. The chief of the workshop, Fatimé, told me there were new arrivals. We walked over to the last of the dunes and there was one woman who had just walked in with four kids, sitting in the sand. Her village was bombed one week ago, and she had fled to escape the Janjaweed, walking for seven nights. Fatimé looked at me, I nodded, 'yes', and in the next few hours she had her cooker and started her solar cooker training, even before she had a shelter. No words needed, no paper needed. That is the way your contribution works." He also explains that in the six camps where they work in Chad, and in the villages of the population around the camps about 29,000 families now do solar cooking, and about 130,000 people are eating solar cooked meals. In this part of the world solar cooking works about 300 days a year. From the empty bags of the food shipped in by the World Food Programme, and the snippets of aluminum foil and cardboard left over from the manufacture of the cookers, the refugees make "thermos baskets" to keep the food, cooked between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., warm until the evening meal at 5 p.m. or 8 p.m. They do not have to search for wood so much any more and there are far fewer conflicts for that reason. As one of the elected representatives of the women refugees said: "Solar cooking brings us justice and peace".
==Publications==
*July 2006: 
==Articles in the media==
*February 2009: Simple Tool That Saves Women's Lives - Parade Magazine
==See also==
* Agrometeorological Applications Associates
* Tchad Solaire
* Refugee camps
* Iridimi Refugee Camp
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Category:Deceased solar cooking promoters