ALL GONE NOW- Any donations to RCK welcome
Have a genuine ex – Dunkirk Rocket Cooker.
We will be raffling off one a day at Glastonbury Festival, and at the Buzzard Fayre,at the end of July. There are also a limited number for sale, to individuals and groups.
The Windy Smithy made a total of 44 Rocket cookers for Refugee Community Kitchens in the refugee camps in the Pas de Calais area of northern France in 2015 and 2016.
When the new camp at Dunkirk was proposed by Medicins Sans Frontiers in late 2015, a group of us who had worked as volunteers in both the Calais Jungle and the old (Grande Synthe) Dunkirk camp in various capacities (including shelter building, burner making, kitchen building, food cooking and aid distributing), came together to build several community kitchens.
These gave the displaced people living in the camp access to cooking facilities, and a place to eat and prepare food for themselves with dignity. It was decided to use wood as fuel for cooking as it was safer and cheaper than using bottled gas so the mark2 Rocket stove cooker was designed.
Based on rocket stove technology, the stoves run very efficiently, with no smoke once hot and only using small amounts of wood compared to an open fire or conventional woodburner. The design provides a direct flame from the fire for hot cooking/frying/boiling with a secondary hot plate for simmering/keeping food warm.
28 of these Mk2 stoves were made for the newly built La Liniere camp on the outskirts of Dunkirk in early 2016. Now that this camp has been destroyed and abandoned, we have rescued and refurbished the cookers from the smoking ruins, while the former residents are scattered far and wide. Again.
It does not seem likely that the French authorities will allow the construction of any new camps, while further south it has proven impossible to supply any aid of this sort to within the government- and military– run camps in Italy, Greece, Serbia etc.
So, in order to raise funds for RCK to continue their work providing up to 1500 meals to the refugees living wild in northern France, we are raffling and selling off these cookers. They have seen good service for a year, feeding and warming thousands of people fleeing from war torn regions, mostly Kurdistan and Afghanistan.
These cookers are designed for use in well ventilated areas, using small dimensioned seasoned firewood., fed in from the side of the cooker. They have a directly heated hotplate, and a warming area on top. Any excess ashes can be easily removed via the flap in the base.
These are now available for sale, both privately and at a reduced price to social projects or groups. They have seen heavy use, and wil look a fair bit rougher than the ones in the photos when they were installed in the camp in early 2016!
Price between £100 and £200, depending on your circumstances. Donations to be made directly to RCK. You are welcome to collect from us in east Devon, or Delivery by pallet will be £60 on top (most UK), payable to us here at the Windy Smithy. Contact us for bank details for BACS payment.
All profits will go to help RCK in their work feeding displaced people in this crazy world.
If you are interested in buying one of these refurbished stoves, or may know someone who is, please let us know.