Jim Keese Follow Up

After Jim Keese presented to our class in Fall 2017 (Peru Study Abroad – Stoves), I Emailed him asking two questions, “When you went back to the villages to see if they were still using the stoves, some were broken. When you built the stoves, did you show people how to fix them or leave more parts or anything like that? Did the evaluation you made result in any changes to the protocol you have now for installing new stoves?”
He responded immediately:
“The recommendations we made after the 2015 study were the following:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Use stronger materials for the stove tops
                  2. make spare parts available
                  3. provide better training to the community on how to maintain the stoves
                  4. provide better training to the students to make sure they were assembled correctly, and they were able to communicate to community members on how to properly operate the stoves.
                  5. Make a 2-week follow-up visit to make sure any problems were addressed, as this is the trial period.

When we went back with a the group in 2017, the following changes had been made:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. design of the stove was modified to make the base thicker (and stronger), and more re-bar was used to support the stove top
                  2. more NGO staff were on-site so that each student group worked under the supervision of a staff member to ensure that the stove was assembled correctly
                  3. we made the 2-week follow-up visit (with spare parts in the van) to check stoves and answer questions. There were no problems at that time. I think steps one and two will make a critical difference by making the stoves more durable and ensuring they are properly assembled in the first place.”