California Engineers Launch Assembly Shop for Efficient Stoves in Darfur

EL FASHER, Sudan and BERKELEY, Calif., Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The
Berkeley, California-based Darfur Stoves Project (DSP), in partnership with
Oxfam America and the Sudanese organization, Sustainable Action Group (SAG),
has launched an assembly facility for fuel-efficient stoves in El Fasher, the
capital of the Darfur region. The assembly facility is the last stop on a
global technology solution supply chain that starts with testing and design in
the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California and stops in a
manufacturing facility outside of Mumbai, India before arriving, ultimately,
for assembly in Darfur, Sudan.

After weeks of training in stove assembly for residents of Al Salam, one of
Darfur's many crowded displacement camps, the small facility now produces
dozens of stoves for displaced families every day, while providing a source of
income for the assembly workers in the process.

Scott Sadlon, a Mechanical Engineer and recent Stanford graduate, just
returned from a two-month trip to North Darfur where he oversaw the formation
of the Berkeley-Darfur Stove® assembly facility. Working alongside DSP
partners Oxfam America and SAG to establish the facility and train the
assembly workers from the camps, he oversaw the creation of a safe, efficient
workshop.

Returning from Darfur, Scott Sadlon commented, "This new partnership with
Oxfam America will significantly increase production beyond the 5,000 stoves
already assembled and distributed...this is a big step." With the new
assembly facility, the total number of stoves assembled and distributed will
increase to roughly 15,000 stoves, a 200% improvement.

400,000 displaced and refugee families are in need of cooking solutions to
meet their basic survival needs in Darfur and neighboring Chad. According to
Andree Sosler, DSP's Executive Director, "opening this workshop in Darfur
brings us closer to our goal of equipping each displaced and refugee family
with a fuel-efficient stove. This is just the start."

Each stove reduces wood consumption three to four times compared with the
traditional three-stone stoves used in the region. As a result, Darfur's
women leave the relative safety of the camps less frequently, thereby
decreasing the risk of sexual violence.

The Berkeley-Darfur Stove® was developed by a team of scientists and engineers
at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, CA under the
supervision of Dr. Ashok Gadgil with the support of the Blum Center for
Developing Economies at UC Berkeley.

For more information, please contact Andree Sosler at andree@darfurstoves.org
or at (415) 533-4605.

The Darfur Stoves Project (DSP) is a nonprofit organization founded in 2005
with the goal of improving the safety and wellbeing of displaced and refugee
families in Darfur by providing cookstoves that use three to four times less
fuel than a traditional three-stone fire. DSP is working to make a meaningful
contribution by reducing both the frequency with which women leave the
relative safety of the camps and the money and food rations commonly traded
for firewood. Visit Darfur Stoves Project's new website launching on Friday,
October 30, 2009: www.darfurstoves.org.

Oxfam America is an international relief and development organization that
creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice. Together with
individuals and local groups in more than 100 countries, Oxfam saves lives,
helps people overcome poverty, and fights for social justice. Oxfam America is
an affiliate of Oxfam International.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is a U.S. Department of Energy
national laboratory located in Berkeley, California. It conducts unclassified
scientific research and is managed by the University of California.

The Blum Center for Developing Economies at UC Berkeley links world-class
faculty, inspiring new curriculum, and the best new technologies, services and
business models to create real-world solutions for developing economies. The
center educates students, builds partnerships, and rigorously evaluates its
innovations in order to make scalable and sustainable contributions toward the
alleviation of poverty.

SOURCE Darfur Stoves Project

Andree Sosler, Darfur Stoves Project, andree@darfurstoves.org,
+1-415-533-4605