Tui´k Ruch´Lew (TRL) / Helping the Earth

Über uns

From 2003 until June of 2016, the ONIL stove project was part of the Cojolya Asso. of Maya Women Weavers. As the success of the ONIL stove project grew, the organizers realized the need for a separate environmentally focused NGO, which could address additional environmental problems facing Lake Atitlan and the people who live along its shores. Thus the staff brings 13 years of experience in environmental education, installation and maintenance of ONIL stoves to Rtui'k Ruch'Lew. Having installed nearly two thousand stoves in the lake drainage basin, the physical and economic health of more than 12,000 Maya has been improved, as well as a reduction in deforestation of the lake basin. Tuik Ruch Lew (TRL) is a grassroots Guatemalan non-profit with the mission to implement sustainable solutions to the environmental, health and well-being challenges that threaten the livelihood of the Maya and the other inhabitants that make up the population living in the Lake Atitlán basin. We envision a thriving Lake Atitlán basin free of air pollution, with forest biodiversity, clean water and empowered communities for a prosperous, sustainable and healthy life.

Tui'k Ruch' Lew focuses on the Tz'utujil Maya communities around the southern shore of Lake Atitlan, in the highlands of Guatemala. About 60% of the population in Santiago Atitlan is still cooking on open fires. Cooking with open fires causes damage to native forests and smoke-related health problems.

Our Solution
Tui’k Ruch’Lew offers a sustainable and energy-efficient cooking solution that reduces deforestation, avoids household air pollution and helps families to save money.

Our programs
• Energy Efficient Cookstoves - Access to Clean Energy: With over 2,000 ONIL stoves installed, Tui'k Ruch'Lew works to provide energy efficient stoves to families still cooking over an open fire. Using 70% less wood than a traditional open fire, families save time and money, protect their loved ones from the dangerous effects of wood smoke, and save one commercial firewood tree per month.
• Utz Ja' Water Filter - Clean Drinking Water for All: Tui'k Ruch Lew is providing British Berkefeld water filters to Santiago Atitlan and its surrounding communities. Due to increased contamination from agriculture, sewage seepage and general waste, untreated water from Lake Atitlan is now unsafe to drink.In towns where the water is chlorinated, many people refuse to use it for cooking and resort to boiling untreated lake water -- requiring more firewood to burn to sterilize it. Our solution also helps to eliminate plastic bag and bottle refuse from purchases of treated water.
• Biogas Reactor - From Poop to Fuel: TRL is currently planning a pilot project to bring sustainable, at-the-source, sanitation to Santiago Atitlan. Low flush toilets connected to a biogas reactor can produce gas for cooking, and fertilizer for the agricultural fields. Our goals are to install improved sanitation, reduce contamination of the environment, and reduce poverty through biogas bi-products.

Dr. Jessica Kind is the Head of ESR at Tui’k Ruch’Lew (Maya Tz’utujil for Helping the Earth).

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.