Proyecto Mirador, USA, a 501(c)3 Organization

  • Blake, OIF Director, getting the stove ready for its cement top.
  • Getting into the field to see some stoves.
  • Esther is Program Manager and has primary responsibility for project documentation and research.
  • Dee and a Family in San Miguel de Lajas.
  • Skye training stove building technicians on GPS marking and mapping.
  • An office meeting with Ejecutores and Richard of the US based Proyecto Mirador (photo by RRavenel).
  • If the Cinco is here, the children can't play with it!
  • Checking the level of wood ash.
  • Explaining the electronic system to the ejecutores.
  • Skye and Esther, implementing an IT system to capture stove installation and use data with smart phones and computers.

Proyecto Mirador USA is a private non profit foundation based in the US that has managed and implemented the process of certification by the Gold Standard, finds donors for funding, and helps with business issues related to Proyecto Mirador, Honduras.  

Commitment to stoves and the people of Honduras grew out of nine years of family participation as translators and supporters for OCHO, an annual medical clinic in Atima, Honduras where we saw firsthand the poverty, respiratory illness, and hardship of the rural families.

The clinic was started, supported, and coordinated by the Church of the Redeemer and compassionate doctors of Baltimore, Maryland. The clinic is completely non-denominational, staffed by doctors of all faiths, and devoted to serving the medical needs of the town. Any villager was welcome and every clinic was very popular with residents of the area.

But something was very odd.  There were many patients who came to the clinic with asthma and other respiratory issues yet the mountainous area air was clean and people were too poor to purchase cigarette.  When we discussed the issue with the cook at the time, now the director of Proyecto Mirador Honduras, Doña Emilia Mendoza, she pointed to the billowing smoke from kitchen cook fires. When we returned to the US we discovered the La Justa stove via an NPR broadcast and decided to build some.

The project began slowly. First, we built a just a handful with money provided by family and friends and tested the reaction of the Honduran people to them. When Honduran families enthusiastically supported the La Justa—especially its cleanliness, its economic advantages in wood savings, and its ability to cook food more rapidly—we slowly expanded. We hired local management, and began providing year round employment for Hondurans who had never had full time work before.

In 2010 we received certification by the Gold Standard for the emission reductions of every stove we build.

We have not looked back.

  • Proyecto Mirador Stoves Constructed 2004 - 2011 E

Proyecto Mirador is a registered charity in Honduras (PM LLC) and is also a registered 501(c)3 charity in the U.S. All funds collected on behalf of Proyecto Mirador are only used in Honduras to build stoves.