Disaster struck Haitian eco-preneur Duquesne Fednard only a week after his workers were trained and ready to start production: his new stove-making factory was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake that killed thousands of Haitians.
He wanted to quit, but his employees refused to let him walk away.
Instead, production was moved into two tents and, despite having no roof, the company employs 35 people. To date, 33,000 clean fuel-efficient stoves, called the Eco Recho, have been sold.
The families that own eco-stoves are saving money by only needing to purchase half the charcoal required by traditional stoves. The stoves also answer the problem of Haiti’s widespread deforestation.
D&E Enterprises is now raising money to rebuild its factory using a crowd-funding page on Indiegogo. (Contribute to the effort here.)
(READ more of the inspiring story from the BBC)