Afghanistan

==Events==
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*January 2025: EG-Solar Update: 100 solar cookers for Paktia/Afghanistan 
*April 2024: EG-Solar sucessfully delivers 200 parabolic solar cookers to the Paktia and Paktika regions in Afghanistan from 2021-2022. This time, in addition to 50 solar cookers for the Khost/Paktia region, another 50 solar cookers were to go to the Paktika region, which was shaken by a strong earthquake on June 22, 2022 that killed over 1,000 people. Read more...
*March 2024: Rebuilding after the 2023 earthquake in Herat - There has been a comprehensive response by the UNDP to help rebuild the community in Herat. They are providing transitional housing, community-cooked meals, a parabolic solar cooker, and PV lighting system for families. As most possessions were lost in the earthquake, the residents are amazed at the ability of the solar cookers to handle their needs. All with so much less smoke than before. The air is cleaner and the children are coughing less. Read more about the project... 
::
Afghan 1, 3-15-24.png|Few possessions were left after the earthquake
Afghan woman w parabolic cooker, 3-15-24.png|Appreciating the ability of the sun to boil water
Afghan 2, 3-15-24.png|Less cooking smoke in the air, makes for easier breathing for residents
 
*May 2023: Parabolic solar stoves built by hand - A Kabul blacksmith is building solar cookers as an affordable and environmentally friendly alternative to using fuels in poverty-stricken Afghanistan. Ghulam Abbas tests a solar stove that he built at his workshop in Kabul on 8 May 2023. The parabola-shaped solar cookers have grown in popularity in Afghanistan as the country is in the grip of a chronic energy crisis. Read more...
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Afghan parabolics 1, 5-13-23.png|Kabul blacksmith, Ghulam Abbas, demonstrates the power of his hand-built parabolic solar cooker
Afghan parabolics 2, 5-13-23.png|He offers two sizes, the smaller ones being easier to transport long distances
Afghan parabolics 3, 5-13-23.png|The small mirror pieces are carefully glued to the supporting dish framework
Afghan parabolics 4, 5-13-23.png|Onlookers are impressed with the cooker's output
 
 
*May 2017: Contribute your data: Drive solar cooking results - Solar cooking contributes to long-term progress from cleaner, more efficient, sustainable cooking solutions worldwide. It is crucial to convey the positive health, economic, and environmental impacts of solar cooking to government agencies and other stakeholders. To help build this case, SCI is reaching out to all solar cooking partners. Solar Cookers International (SCI) invites your input in the form of data on baseline information, number and type of solar cookers, number of years of the project, location, outcomes, etc. With your help, we can work to include solar-thermal cooking in national energy and sustainability plans. You provide:
::*Number of solar cookers
::*Type
::*Location
::*Time period
::*Distributed
::*Sold
::*Manufactured
:Submit your solar cooking data by filling out a simple form on the Solar Cookers International website or email info@solarcookers.org.
*November 2015: Global Hope Network International reports delivering 86 solar cookers in the Yoakawlang District and Bamyan Province of Afghanistan. They note that local solar cooker production and sales have also increased in these areas. Read more...
*August 2015: The Wildlife Conservation Society, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, delivered solar cookers and fuel-efficient stoves to residents of the Band-e-Amir National Park in order to reduce fuelwood consumption. Read more...
*July 2015: National Energy Globe Award Afghanistan 2015 was given to Trust In Education - The jury noted that Trust in Education, under the leadership of Jack Howell, is distributing solar cookers to the masses living in refugee camps in Kabul, Afghanistan. Not only does this company aid in the feeding and protection of many people, but also helps to protect the environment by keeping harmful wastes from the landfill. Read more...
==Resources==
===Reports===
*Promoting solar cooking in Afghanistan (Detailed report discussing the choice of solar cookers for use in Afghanistan based on cultural, economic, and logistical considerations)
*March 2016: (Dari and English) - Grace Magney
*July 2006: - Sabur Achtari
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*October 1996: - UNHCR-Geneva
===Audio and Video===
*December 2023:
::thumb|400px|none|Resourceful individuals create businesses to fabricate parabolic solar cookers. This has provided a way to generate income and train local youth. The solar cookers are indeed a free fuel source for cooking
*July: 2023 
::thumb|425px|none|Ghulam Abbas from Kabul demonstrates his parabolic solar cooker manufacturing operation
*July 2014:
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*October 2014:
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*October 2011:
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*August 2009
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*July 2006: An interview with Grace Magney discussing the Global Hope Network International solar cooking project in Afghanistan
===Articles in the media===
*April 2019: Using the sun to reduce air pollution in Kabul - The Hindu
*May 2013: - Peet's newsletter
*July 2011: Solar ovens, renewable energy offer hope for Afghanistan - Reuters
*November 2004: Pilot project in Afghanistan confirms need; expanded project recommended - Solar Cooker Review
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This country, much in Western news in the last years as the refuge of Al-Quaeda
members, has actually had solar activity for some time. A newspaper account (Kabul New Times, July 6,1985 (in the Soviet era) discusses research activity for utilization of
solar energy, conducted under the auspices of the Solar Energy Institute, a part of the
Academy of Sciences of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The effort was
principally directed towards the potential heating of houses (not cooking, in the article
shown) in recognition of "an increasing deficiency of traditional (presumably meaning
wood) and other energy sources". The article further states that since Afghanistan has
300 sunny days per year, conditions are favorable for generating solar energy. The
device pictured in the article is a flat plate collector, with two scientists working on its
development. Not long after this article was published however, the solar research work
most likely ceased with the end of the Soviet regime and the beginning of the Taliban
period.
In a later era, this one under Taliban rule, the SERVE Solar Project, operating in
Peshawar, Pakistan, moved its operations to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in order to serve the
population of refugees then returning to Afghanistan, after the departure of the Soviets.
SERVE is a British humanitarian agency with projects in health, disability services,
relief, and environmental issues. Its work in Pakistan began in refugee camps filled by an
Afghan population in 1980. While working on other problems, SERVE discovered the
severity of fuel shortages and based on that need, developed a large scale and very
successful solar cooking project (see the report on Pakistan). Refugees who moved back
took their box cookers with them and demand in Afghanistan was substantial. Initally,
SERVE trucked box cookers to Kabul for sale in the market places. Later, they
established an office in-country. In 2001, as Taliban rule tightened, SERVE (considered
to be a "Christian" organization and hence not acceptable) was forcibly ejected from the
country, its gates locked, its staff deported. (Newspaper clipping, NYTimes, date?)
After Taliban rule ended, and under the present US led military assistance while
the provisional government becomes established and stable, solar cooking has returned to
the country. Several projects are underway currently, all too new to have been evaluated
for the achievement of their goals. The following agencies are known to have a presence
in the country, with a solar cooking component.
Under the leadership of retired SERVE staffer, Gordon Magney (now desceased) and his wife Grace Magney, who returned to live in Kabul in 2002, a small project is underway utilizing a new box cooker developed by an American NGO, the Solar Oven Society (See section in chapter Multi-National Promoters). The new cooker, called the Sport is made of recycled soda bottles with a Mylar cover and (soon to be available) shiny reflectors. Four hundred of the cookers were shipped to Kabul, unassembled, along with the equipment required to assemble the finished product. Under the supervision of Magney, that has now been accomplished.
Training of users and sale of the cookers at a cost subsidized by a number of Minnesota
churches is underway.
Another project in Afghanistan is sponsored by the Rotary international network. A humanitarian unit called The Temple Solar Project was established by several Rotary groups in November of 1998. It has been supplying large community sized cookers called The Villager (produced by Sun Ovens International) to communities around the world. The cost of each villager is $10,000, plus shipping costs of an additional $3,500. Five of the Villagers have been shipped to Afghanistan; two are already installed and in operation. The others are in transit or awaiting delivery. The first oven was installed in a school, in collaboration with an organization called Friends for Afghan Redevelopment, cooking food for students and
staff.. Some smaller solar cookers are not particularly effective in cooking the traditional
Afghan bread, an unleavened "naan"-type, which is however easily made in the Village.
The large oven can also be used for bakeries as income generating projects or in
institutional settings such as schools or hospitals. Logistical difficulties are continuous,
including moving the goods through customs, appropriate training, and so on, but the
projects are proceeding according to plan.
An individual, Laila Petty, was prepared and equipped, by an experienced solar
cook associated with SCI, to promote solar cooking, prior to a extended visit she was
planning to make to Afghanistan. A native Dari speaker, Ms. Petty was particularly
interested in the plight of the "internal displaced persons" (IDP) in Afghanistan who do
not receive international assistance from refugee organizations, but are nonetheless
homeless and poorly served by charitable organizations. Early in her yearlong stay in
Afghanistan, she made a number of contacts with relief agencies; did a number of
demonstrations, more or less on her own, and conducted training for cooks in several IDP
locations. Her work was well received, but agencies in the country were already
overburdened by the difficulties of working in the country and none took up her offer to
assist in development of a solar cooking project. She was even able to locate a, potential
manufacturer of CooKits, the device she was using to demonstrate, and the cheapest solar
cookers available. However, none of her work resulted in any substantial interest. She
ultimately found a different cause to work on, but would be willing to assist in a solar
project should one develop.
===See also===
*Promoting solar cooking in Afghanistan (Detailed report discussing the choice of solar cookers for use in Afghanistan based on cultural, economic, and logistical considerations)
*
*Wikimedia Commons Atlas of 
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Solar Cookers International has rated Afghanistan as the #10 country in the world in terms of solar cooking potential (See: ). The estimated number of people in Afghanistan with fuel scarcity in 2020 is 6,800,000.
See also
*Household Energy in Afghanistan
*
*
*Solar cooker dissemination and cultural variables
Category:Countries
Category:Asia
Category:South Asia
Category:Afghanistan
Category:Countries with the greatest solar cooking potential