Worldwide Solar Cooking Awareness Weeks (June 23rd - 30th and Dec. 17th - 23rd)

 



Whakataukī: Hāpaitia te ara tika pūmau ai te rangatiratanga mō ngā uri whakatipu.
Foster the pathway of knowledge to strength, independence, and growth, for future generations.

If you're keen on solar cooking, you probably think the upcoming Worldwide Solar Cooking Awareness Weeks are a good idea, because they are! However, if advocacy and awareness-raising is new territory for you, you may be left wondering where to start. Here are five suggestions, based on my advocacy experience in other fields:
  1. Based on your own reasons for solar-cooking, find your allies. Let them know your plans, and work with them for mutual gain if possible.
    • Solar cooking for the environment? Be the solar snack provider at a climate strike, or work in with local environmental organisations.
    • Solar cooking to eat outdoors during fire bans? Work with local firefighters to promote solar cooking AND fire prevention.
    • Solar cooking to lower your electricity bill? Work in with your local budget advice NGO to run a workshop on making and using low-cost solar cookers such as the Copenhagen or Fun Panel.
  2. Demonstrate spectacularly. Les Festins Photoniques may be your best role models here. Wear your snazziest sunnies. Let your food speak for itself by following the solar theme. If you can't mount a big display, a couple of really eye-catching cookers will still arouse the curiosity of passers-by.
  3. Listen as much as you talk. Prioritise talking to two kinds of people - the genuinely interested and the changemakers. Changemakers may include your allies, in point 1 above. They also include local and national politicians, interested manufacturers and vendors of allied products, the media, teachers, and that person you know who just has an outsized influence for inexplicable reasons.
  4. Raise your social media game for the week. Post often. Repost related posts by others more often - use your search skills as well as retweeting/reposting the solar cooks you already know. Use hashtags that take in allied fields where interest may lie. 
  5. Be solution-agnostic, or even solar-ecumenical. You may love building solar cookers, but make sure you can answer questions about where to buy one. You may have bought a state-of-the art solar cooker that you love dearly, but know how someone on a different budget can make one.
All the best with raising some awareness, and if the weather fails you, there's always next time!

Editing credits: Thanks to the community at The Solar Cookers World Network, especially Luther Krueger and Dave Oxford, for suggesting improvements to this post.

Image credits: Two public domain images from Open Clipart Library were combined, with modification. Sun. Frypan.

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