Louise Meyer

Last edited: 28 November 2017

Louise Meyer is the Solar Household Energy, Inc. (SHE) Project Manager for EPA’s Partnership for Clean Indoor Air’s pilot project in Mexico researching solar cookers and smoke inhalation. Ms. Meyer also managed the World Bank’s Development Marketplace grant for the SHE HotPot Initiative in Mexico.

Her interest in solar cooking began 20 years ago developing small business enterprises in Ivory Coast for the International Labor Organization. She later gained field experience as a volunteer trainer for Solar Cookers International in refugee camps. She co-designed and launched the website http://AfricanCraft.com. Ms. Meyer holds an MA in French and German Language and Literature and spent many years teaching. She obtained a graduate degree in International Development from the African Institute in Geneva, Switzerland.

News[]

November 2017: Louise Meyer, co-founder of been selected as an awardee from Leaders in Energy. The award ceremony will take place on 1 December, 2017, in Arlington, Virginia, USA.
August 2015: Louise Meyer featured in National Geographic discussing benefits of solar cooking
February 2013: Changes are coming to Tilori, Haiti as well. Twenty-five families are learning to cook Haitian meals like soup, beans, potatoes, yucca, plantains and rice with energy-efficient stoves and solar ovens — little or no wood or charcoal is needed. Solar Household Energy (SHE), a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that introduces solar and alternative cooking to communities, recently distributed the stoves that were purchased with Nature Conservancy funding. Louise Meyer, trainer from SHE, will continue to provide on-going technical assistance and encourage the women to support each other as they learn this new way of cooking. Read more at Solar Cookers: Making Life Easier for Women

Louise Meyer and Regina Benjaminto 2, SHE, 11-21-12 — Louise Meyer, of Solar Household Energy, demonstrates solar cooking to the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjaminto.

November 2012: Solar Household Energy has again had a busy summer and fall. Louise Meyer provided solar cooking demonstrations, including to the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjaminto, and assisted the Nature Conservancy in Haiti to teach the Integrated Cooking Method as part of its larger reforestation program in the region. It is exciting and encouraging to see organizations such as SHE taking the promotion of solar cooking the next step, to increased global awareness. Read more about their efforts...

Culinary Institute of Africa Sudan 2008 — Students at the Culinary Institute of Africa can add another skill to their resume: solar cook

March 2008: Louise Meyer reports on a group of internally displaced persons that are students at the Culinary Institute of Africa. As part of their curriculum they are learning how to solar cook. Meyer sent photographs of several students taking “Masters of Solar Cooking” classes at the Institute’s school in Juba, Sudan. Based in Lokichoggio, Kenya, the non-profit Culinary Institute of Africa is a community service division of the AFEX Group, which provides a number of management and catering services to camps throughout Kenya, Sudan, and elsewhere. The Institute began in 2004 when Terry Light, chief operating officer of AFEX, asked Nancy Crooks to train local Turkana with skills that could gain them employment at various camps and other institutions in the region. With technical assistance from Solar Cookers International (SCI), Crooks was able to incorporate solar cooker use and construction into the curriculum. The Institute offers an accredited, professional culinary education leading to a diploma in food production. SCI also provided training services and helped Crooks secure funding from the Lift Up Africa organization for a solar cooker project to teach Turkana women how to make and use solar cookers, heat-retention devices, and Water Pasteurization Indicators (WAPIs), as well as start a small solar cooker shop.