Environmental Studies alumna Sarah Goldstein works for Project-SAFE, a company she founded with Sinead Kennedy that provides solar cookers to families in South Africa. She recently wrote to the department, discussing the experience she had as an intern and how that influenced her current work.
My name is Sarah Goldstein (ENVS 2010 grad) and I am the co-founder of Project-SAFE (Solar Applications for Empowerment) and a former UCSC Environmental Studies student. In the spring of 2010 I met with Chris Krohn to discuss internship possibilities. I expressed my interest in renewable energies and Chris put me in touch with Mike Arenson, or "Solar Mike" as he is more commonly known. Mike specializes in the design, sale and installation of solar electric and hot water systems, but what really caught my eye was his extensive collection of solar cookers sitting in his back shed. Together we sat down and developed a project.
The first quarter of my internship required me to educate myself on the fundamentals of solar cooking and to start developing a project for the second quarter. In the beginning this included a lot of research, experimentation and discussion with experts as well as people who knew nothing about solar cooking. These discussions with uninformed people are what motivated me to toy with the idea of education. The more I learned about solar cooking, the more I wanted to share that knowledge with others.
For the remainder of my internship I compiled a kindergarten to sixth grade (ages 5-12) teaching curriculum. I designed and taught each lesson plan. They were met with great success. I then taught at several elementary schools around Santa Cruz County throughout my final semester and was rewarded with amazing feedback from all the students and teachers I worked with along the way. It was this success that led me to the prospect of working in Africa.t
I moved to Sydney, Australia a week after I graduated in December 2010, which was awesome. I only meant to stay for six months, but ended up staying a whole year. The economy in Sydney is doing amazing and there are a lot of jobs and opportunities in every field, including environmental work (you may want to let some job-seeking seniors in on that little secret)! I myself worked in hospitality, which got really old really fast, but it did pay the bills and allow me to continue traveling. From Australia I headed to Indonesia and Thailand and from there I headed west to Ireland and England. After a brief European stint I headed south to Cape Town, South Africa, which is where I am currently based.
Project SAFE is an education-based initiative that teaches women about the benefits of solar energy and demonstrates how to make and use solar cookers. By leading workshops in disadvantaged communities and providing the materials to construct simple solar cookers, we educate and empower women and their families, decreasing their dependence on limited or costly fuels and diminishing the risk of fires and health hazards in their homes. I recently read Half the Sky, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, who argue that the oppression of women worldwide is "the paramount moral challenge" of the present era. The book inspired me to try and help women and thereby their children and families. By educating women on how to make and use cookers, we hope to decrease their dependence on limited or costly fuels, to empower them and to free up their time for more productive pursuits.
The workshops teach women how to make, use and care for their solar cookers. We provide all attendees with the materials they need and assist them with the construction of rudimentary solar cookers. We distribute illustrated guides to help attendees with future inquiries they, or their friends and family, may have about the construction of solar cookers and train women to continue this work on their own to have an ongoing valuable impact on their communities.
Recently we have organized and led three workshops around Cape Town, South Africa in the townships of Kuils River, Khayelitsha and Elsies River. The women were enthusiastic to make their cookers and shortly after our workshop we received a phone call from one of the participants to tell us how she and her daughter made porridge with her solar cooker. It's success stories like these that help keep Project-SAFE alive and I am thrilled to be a part of it.
