Salt Rock inventor helps people cook up a storm, one bag at a time
After bringing a pot of food to the boil and placing it in a Wonderbag, the food will continue cooking for up to eight hours.
Empowering rural communities while making the world greener, Wonderbag has launched its newest initiative to reach in-need households countrywide.
The Wonderbag Direct initiative, which sees the unique heat retention cooker (non-electric slow cooker) sold at a subsidised price, also intends to promote rural entrepreneurship for ‘Wonder-women’ who are able to earn commission on sales.
One of the first activations for Wonderbag Direct took place in Tongaat on Saturday, where locals could buy the product for a one time only R50 (normal sale price is R450).
If you missed Saturday’s sale you can still buy the bags for just R170 for two bags, made possible through a subsidy by the World Bank carbon credit system.
Salt Rock resident Sarah Collins started Wonderbag in 2008 in response to the crisis of indoor cooking issues, which cause seven million deaths annually and add to global pollution levels.
“By minimising the need for fire, we have helped to reduce both,” said Collins.
After bringing a pot of food to the boil and placing it in a Wonderbag, the food will continue cooking for up to eight hours without any additional energy source. No battery, plug or fuel is required, just simple heat retention technology.
Carbon credits
After creating the product, Collins had to find a way to get it to a price point that could be affordable for those who needed it most.
“I don’t believe in free aid, which often comes in the form of international funding. We find that this model is unsustainable when the money runs out, aside from often prescriptive funding agreements,” she said.
So began the journey to become registered as a carbon project, which is a necessary step for the carbon credit model.
“The idea of carbon credits is to support those most affected by climate change, using funding from the biggest polluters. We had to prove we were reducing carbon and that our buyers could not afford the full sale price.”
Collins successfully registered her first carbon project in Rwanda in 2011, with South Africa following in 2012.
To continue the funding, Wonderbag needs to track the emissions savings from those who buy the subsidised products.
Buyers need to allow the company to follow up with surveys to collect data.
The next obstacle was reaching the most isolated communities.
A partnership with Pargo – a transport company with more than 4 000 drop-off points countrywide – made this possible.
“So with transport available, the final challenge was to empower people who may not have bank accounts or network access to buy the product online. To achieve this, we created the Wonder-women programme where one community member can get a code and buy on behalf of those who need it, earning commission each time.”
Providing a neat loop on the launch, the activation in Tongaat was at the shop of Gertrude Ndlovu, one of the first Wonder-women countrywide.
To find out more about the initiative, visit wonderbag.co.za or visit Gertrude at Shop 7 M.P Centre, 17 Arbee Drive, Tongaat.
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