The amazing gathering of thousands of students who make solar cookers and then cook their own food is helping to spread awareness about sustainable energy like nothing else! Here’s how “The World’s Largest Solar Oven Cooking Festival” is bringing a change.
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Image: Suryakumbh at Subhash Ground, Bhayander in Feb. 2017
SuryaKumbh is a unique Solar Festival wherein every participant builds their own solar cooker in few minutes, use it to independently cook delicious food without Fuel, Fire or Wire and then take it back home to share the joy of solar cooking with family, friends and neighbors. Sometimes they also make a Guinness World Record.
Built upon an innovative do it yourself Solar Cooker that weighs just 200 grams, SuryaKumbh engages a child’s natural curiosity by transforming the art of harnessing solar energy into an adventurous Festival of Sun. While children cooking noodles, pasta or poha using Solar Energy is common scene post SuryaKumbh, many think creatively to bake cakes, cookies or dhoklas for special occasions.
The solar cooker kit consists of a polymer based reflector, a black metal utensil, a plastic oven bag and two clips. It is compact enough to be rolled and carried in the backpack.
First initiated in 2013 by Simplified Technologies for Life a Jalna based social venture, till date SuryaKumbh has empowered over 119,500 children globally from small tribal village of Jawahar to ultra modern city of Dubai.
There have been 4 world record attempts
- 2250 participants at JES College, Jalna in 2013
- 3639 participants at Keshav Srushti, Thane in 2014
- 6021 participants at MIT College, Aurangabad in 2016
- 7438 participants at Subhash Ground, Bhayander in 2017
Besides this, there have been two mega celebrations under the name of MahaSuryaKumbh –
1) between Jan-Feb 2015 with 16781 participants at multiple locations and
2) from Oct 2015 to Jan 2017 with 72,613 children
The Festival can be celebrated in any School, College or Community, spans for 3 hours with the participants first learning the fundamentals of harnessing solar energy, then understanding the construction & working principles of the solar cooker, then assembling their own solar cookers from the provided kit and eventually using the solar cooker to cook food.
Post the workshop, participants carry the solar cookers back home and continue experimenting with it by cooking vivid recipes for their family, friends and neighbors. Thus every child recreates the SuryaKumbh experience multiple times and thus gains vital social confidence in presenting his/her ideas physically (a quality that is depleting dramatically in the Virtual World).
And when the viewer is astonished by witnessing the solar cooked food the child is empowered with a belief that irrespective of age, gender, demography and economy, she too can make a positive meaningful difference in the World.
More information can be seen at www.suryakumbh.com
https://www.facebook.com/suryakumbh