Making of a New Tradition In April 2018, the SNV team visited stove customers in to see what they had to say about their new stoves. Read more about their interesting stories.

Part 2 Ms. Kert Bora (50) Basket Weaver

Kampong Chhnang Province Roleab’Ear District Ms. Kert Bora is 50 years old. Bora and her family live in Tang Bompung village in province. Bora lives with her husband, a granddaughter and two grandsons. Bora and her family own 2 hectares of land for farming. Besides farming, they weave baskets. They can earn 30,000 Khmer Riel (around $7.5) per day from it. Bora has only owned her SolarServe 3G for about half a month, but she feels very satisfied with it. She uses the SolarServe 3G every day for cooking meals, boiling water, and for grilling. She cooks rice with an electric rice cooker. She also owns a small LPG stove, but only uses it a few times per month during family gatherings. Bora attended a stove demonstration in the village and when she felt interested she registered to buy it. The stove sales agent convinced her to buy SolarServe 3G stove because is produces less smoke and saves fuel. After the event, the sales agent came to her house with the stove and trained her how to use it. She pays the stove off in 6 monthly instalments. The company sales agent required her to pay down an initial instalment of 36,000 Khmer Riel (USD $9), and the rest is collected by the sales agent on the last day of every month. Before owning the SolarServe 3G, Bora cooked on the ‘Traditional Lao Stove’ and an electric rice cooker. She does not know how much fuel she wasted on the ‘Traditional Lao Stove’, but she understands that the traditional stove uses a lot of fuel. She used it because she had no other options. Since owning the SolarServe 3G, she notices a difference in the amount of fuel she uses. Now she needs only 2 to 3 small pieces of wood to cook soup and boil water. The SolarServe 3G also produces less smoke. Her pots are easier to clean. It’s also easier and fast to start the fire on the 3G stove. Bora buys fuel from a wood seller. She pays 100,000 Khmer Riel (USD $25) per truck load of 50 long tree trunks. One truck load of wood lasted her for about 1 year when she used her ‘Traditional Lao Stove’. She estimates that if she cooks with SolarServe 3G, the same wood supply will last for 1 and a half years. She says the 3G saves 40% to 50% of fuel. Ms. Ly Sochea (53) Grocery Shop Owner

Kampong Chhnang Province Ms. Ly Sochea is 53 years old. She lives in Kampong Tralach District in Kampong Chhnang Province (70km from ). Sochea bought the SolarServe 3G stove in November 2017. She has owned it for almost 5 months. She bought it from a local sales representative. Sochea attended a stove demonstration held by the local sales representative. The agent explained the stove’s benefits and the available payment methods. She felt interested and registered to buy the stove. Two days later the sales agent and a Credit Officer from Microfinance Institution ‘AMK’ came to her house with the SolarServe 3G stove, offering her a loan. She pays off the stove to the MFI over 6 monthly instalments. Sochea owns a small grocery shop. Her husband is a driver for a construction company. Her husband earns around USD $150 per month. From her small shop Sochea can earn little money, but enough to buy food and rice for her family. Sochea lives in small house with her husband and their 9 children. Sochea and her family have no land for farming. Before owning the SolarServe 3G stove, Sochea cooked on a ‘Traditional Lao Stove’ and on a traditional ‘Neang Korngrey’ stove. She uses two stoves at the same time when cooking. Now she stopped cooking on the ‘Traditional Lao Stove’. Sochea uses the SolarServe 3G stove for cooking meals, boiling water, and for boiling duck eggs. Her old ‘Neang Korngrey’ stove is still present in the kitchen because she needs two stoves for cooking, but can so far only afford one SolarServe 3G stove. Sochea is very satisfied on her new stove. She says the stove is easy to move, easy to light, uses less fuel, and produces less smoke. Sochea buys wood from a wood seller. One small truck load of wood costs 100,000 Khmer Riel (USD $25). This amount of wood lasts her for about 8 months. Sochea complains that she lost a lot of woodfuel in the past when she used her traditional ‘Neang Korngrey’ and ‘Traditional Lao Stove’. She says she would prefer to buy one more SolarServe 3G stove if she could afford it. She says the stove saves up to 60% of fuel compared to her traditional stoves. She feels the durability of the SolarServe 3G is appropriate for the USD $40 price point. Ms. Ly Sokha (25) Farmer and Housewife

Pursat Province Ms. Ly Sokha is 25 years old. She lives in Bakan District in Province. She bought the Prime stove from a sales agent from distributor LES. The sales agent came to do a stove demonstration in her village. What convinced her to buy the stove was that the stove is not heavy, saves fuel, and produces less smoke. She bought the stove a price of USD $40, and paid it off all in one go. Sokha and her family are farmers. When Sokha got married, she moved to live in a house with her husband and their son. After harvesting season, her husband goes to the forest to log timber. He spends 10-15 days per month in the jungle forest. From this small business Sokha’s family earn around USD $200/month. Sokha always uses two stoves per meal. Before owning the Prime stove, she cooked rice with an electric rice cooker, and cooked soup, boiled water, and grilled meat and fish on the traditional ‘New Lao’ stove. She used a small LPG stove to re- heat food, about once or twice per month. LPG is expensive, and it’s difficult to find a place to refill the LGP canister when it’s empty. Sokha has now owned the Prime stove for almost 6 months. She now uses the traditional ‘New Lao’ stove only for grilling, and prepares everything else on the Prime stove. She likes most that the Prime stove uses little fuel, that there is less smoke which makes it easy to clean her pots, and that the stove is not heavy and can be easily moved around. She says the Prime stove can save a lot of fuel - up to 40% compared to her traditional ‘New Lao’ stove. Sokha has a 3 year old son. Her son always stays close to her while she cooks. She feels it is good to use the Prime stove because her son won’t be affected by smoke as much as when she used the traditional ‘New Lao’ stove. Sokha never buys wood. Her husband usually spends a day to go to a mountain 70km away from their house to collect wood for her by loading up a small truck. That is usually enough for her to use for a whole year. Mr. Cheum Beun (68) Farmer and Basket Weaver

Kampong Chhnang Province Roleab’Ear District Mr. Cheum Beun is 68 years old. He lives in Roleab’Ear District in Kampong Chhnang Province. He works for the village authorities. He and his family are also farmers. They own 2 hectares of farmland. After harvesting, they weave baskets to sell. They can earn USD $4-5 per day from it. Mr. Cheum Beun’s son rents out sound systems - like audio speakers and CD/DVD players - to the people in the village when they have a party or a wedding. Mr. Cheum Beun bought Prime stove one month ago. He bought it from a sales agent of distribution company LES. He joined a village meeting where he observed a stove demonstration. He was interested in the stove’s benefits. What convinced him to buy the Prime stove are the fuel savings and the stove’s durability. It can last for a long time. The stove price was USD $45 and he paid it all in one go. Mr. Cheum Beun has two ‘Traditional Lao Stove’ and he used both of them for every meal before owning the Prime stove. Now he loves to cook on the Prime stove. He uses it every day for cooking rice. He stopped using one of the ‘Traditional Lao Stove’ while still using the other one from time to time for cooking soups and for grilling. He says the Prime stove is good to use because it is easy to move around and easy to start the fire, and there is less smoke. He especially feels the Prime stove saves a lot of fuel compared to the ‘Traditional Lao Stove’. The Prime stove is now his primary stove. Besides cooking rice, Mr. Cheum Beun uses the Prime stove for cooking soup and boiling water. Mr. Cheum Beun sometimes collects wood around his house, but mostly buys it. He buys only one time per year. He buys 50 long tree trunks in one truck load at a price of USD $25, which lasts him for about a year. He says, based on one month experience using the Prime stove, he thinks this wood could last up to 2 years because the Prime stove can save 40% to 50% compared to the ‘Traditional Lao Stove’. He is very satisfied with the Prime stove.