International TEFL Academy & Mujerave Partnership

The Chicago-based International TEFL Academy (ITA) offers world-class TEFL certification and connects English teachers with teaching positions around the globe. They also have a robust Charity Department. The Charity Department meets regularly to organize support for nonprofit organizations, making donations and providing technical assistance to organizations they believe in. ITA, through its Charity Department, made a generous contribution to Mujerave in early 2016.
Mujerave offers companies like ITA the option to review our programs, learn about What We Do, and choose how their donation is spent. ITA’s Charity Department selected Mujerave, and subsequently directed staff to Mujerave’s website, where the entire team read-up on Mujerave’s projects and perused their facebook page. Then, ITA voted on how their generous donation was spent. The staff overwhelmingly chose to support an improved wood-burning stove project, part of Mujerave’s Healthy Homes Program.
Many women in rural Totonicapan, Guatemala cook over an open fire or "maya three rock" stove. They balance pots and pans over rocks and burn a fire underneath. The smoke causes eye, throat, and chest pain as women spend up to seven hours a day inside a room with an open fire and no ventilation. Cooking three meals a day on their knees, or hunched at the waist, causes frequent knee and back pain for local women. These women also report using much more wood than is necessary to cook their food (compared to neighbors who already have wood burning stoves) because the open fires are not efficient. Furthermore, food is easily spilled and lost while cooking over unstable rocks. Mothers and young children are often burned by the open fires and shifting firewood. Over time, soot develops inside the home and can accumulate on clothing and bedding. In the communities where Mujerave operates, many families do not have running water in their homes, so an increase in laundry means more frequent trips to the river or communal water source to carry more water home. The average mother's workload is impacted in many ways by these open fires cookstoves. She spends a great deal of her time gathering firewood, cooking, carrying water home in tinajas, and washing the clothing by hand.
Mujerave offers companies like ITA the option to review our programs, learn about What We Do, and choose how their donation is spent. ITA’s Charity Department selected Mujerave, and subsequently directed staff to Mujerave’s website, where the entire team read-up on Mujerave’s projects and perused their facebook page. Then, ITA voted on how their generous donation was spent. The staff overwhelmingly chose to support an improved wood-burning stove project, part of Mujerave’s Healthy Homes Program.
Many women in rural Totonicapan, Guatemala cook over an open fire or "maya three rock" stove. They balance pots and pans over rocks and burn a fire underneath. The smoke causes eye, throat, and chest pain as women spend up to seven hours a day inside a room with an open fire and no ventilation. Cooking three meals a day on their knees, or hunched at the waist, causes frequent knee and back pain for local women. These women also report using much more wood than is necessary to cook their food (compared to neighbors who already have wood burning stoves) because the open fires are not efficient. Furthermore, food is easily spilled and lost while cooking over unstable rocks. Mothers and young children are often burned by the open fires and shifting firewood. Over time, soot develops inside the home and can accumulate on clothing and bedding. In the communities where Mujerave operates, many families do not have running water in their homes, so an increase in laundry means more frequent trips to the river or communal water source to carry more water home. The average mother's workload is impacted in many ways by these open fires cookstoves. She spends a great deal of her time gathering firewood, cooking, carrying water home in tinajas, and washing the clothing by hand.
Because of its inefficiency, open fire cooking increases the environmental burden of small villages by requiring an estimated 18,000 pounds of firewood per family, per year. Not only do the wood burning stoves that ITA funded in Guatemala reduce firewood use by over 50%, but Mujerave also required that women plant trees in agroforestry patterns as a pre-requisite to participate in the project. As a result of the collaboration between ITA and Mujerave, over 720 trees were planted in rural Guatemala in September 2016.
According to the pre-project survey:
- 57% of the 48 women interviewed reported suffering frequent burns from cooking over an open fire
- 100% of the women interviewed reported more frequent laundry duty from the smoke
- 82% reported frequent body pain from cooking on the ground
- 57% of the 48 women interviewed reported suffering frequent burns from cooking over an open fire
- 100% of the women interviewed reported more frequent laundry duty from the smoke
- 82% reported frequent body pain from cooking on the ground
Today, forty-eight families and hundreds of small children in Guatemala no longer suffer from exposure to indoor air pollutants in rural Guatemala thanks to the International TEFL Academy and their generous Charity Department. Both Mujerave and ITA are excited to track the health and environmental benefits of their project in rural Guatemala. On October 11, 2016, Mujerave’s Founder Kody Gerkin was able to meet with ITA’s Charity Department and discuss the impact of the ITA sponsored stove project and discuss ITA’s continued involvement in support of Mujerave’s mission.
ITA, for their gracious donation, was also given the privilege to vote for a name for one of Mujerave’s income generating greenhouses. They decided to name the greenhouse, built by Mujerave and community partners in October 2016, mujeraverde, a combination of the words “women” and “green” in Spanish while incorporating mujerave into the name as well.
ITA, for their gracious donation, was also given the privilege to vote for a name for one of Mujerave’s income generating greenhouses. They decided to name the greenhouse, built by Mujerave and community partners in October 2016, mujeraverde, a combination of the words “women” and “green” in Spanish while incorporating mujerave into the name as well.
The International TEFL Academy and Mujerave are proud to have impacted hundreds of lives in one of the most underserved areas in the Western Hemisphere.
Contact Us to learn more about establishing a Corporate Partnership with Mujerave.
Contact Us to learn more about establishing a Corporate Partnership with Mujerave.