In addition to giving participants basic carpentry skills, a safer, healthier and more ecological way of cooking, and income-generating opportunities, the trainings serve as encounter groups for the women to share and address personal and community concerns. For example, in the very poor community of Monte Horet outside León, where more than half the homes are little more than shacks with walls of plastic tarp and cardboard, all 10 of the women involved in a solar oven workshop overcame issues of past personal conflicts to build their ovens. Not only were the women surprised at what they could do, but so were the men in the community. They didn’t think women were capable of doing such work!