Thursday February 28, 2013

Lights...camera...take action!

Greetings from the EOS team! After a busy January & February, we are excited to share a few updates with you about our ongoing work in Nicaragua.

Lights
In January, we installed 25 solar panels for rural families in the mountains of Ocotal, El Sauce. This was a joint project with partner organization, Enlace, and Rotary International. The two children you see here now have electricity in their house for the first time!

Camera
Last month, EOS volunteer Slade Kemmet brought his camera and photography skills to Nicaragua where he captured some incredible footage of the solar project. Click here to see some of his pictures.

Take action
Ending poverty is tough, and we need your help! If you're looking to give back this year, here are a few simple ways you can take action to help families living in poverty.

• Join our charity running team (click here)
• Host a dinner party
• Sign up to make a monthly donation
• Donate your birthday

If you are interested in getting involved with our cause, contact Greg at gregory.mcgrath@eosintl.org and stay tuned for more information.

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Updates from Nicaragua

It's our first newsletter of the year, and we want to update you on two other projects we're working on in Nicaragua:

Bringing clean water to over 50,000 people
Our biggest project ever, we are in the process of installing CTI-8 water chlorination systems in 92 communities across Nicaragua. The need for clean water is critical, but a project of this magnitude presents obvious challenges. Since January, we installed systems in 12 of these communities and plan to reach 20 or more in March!

Helping entrepreneurs start technology businesses with EOS technologies
An update on our partnership with micro-finance organization, People Helping People Global. Last month we helped 10 Nicaraguan entrepreneurs start baking businesses with an EOS fuel-efficient oven. They now have the tools to drastically increase their income. That makes a total of 19 entrepreneurs who started a business with a low-cost technology and an interest-free loan since we started this project in December. One entrepreneur is pictured above with his new drip irrigation system that will be used to grow vegetables for sale. We'll be sharing updates on their business progress in the coming months.

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Bringing light to rural Nicaragua

Here's a story from our multimedia coordinator, Slade Kemmet, who was in Nicaragua last month capturing pictures and video that we'll share with you throughout the year.

It was the fourth meal in as many hours and I finally had to politely refuse, less my stomach explode.  The simple gift of rice and beans, a traditional Nicaraguan meal, graciously offered, was all the family could afford to show their appreciation for the newly installed solar panel now resting on their tin roof.  It was the last system we had installed for the day as we neared our goal of 25 in the small mountain community of Ocotal, El Sauce. The mountains outside grew dim as the sun finished setting, leaving a layer of darkness across the coffee country.  The home would have followed suit were it not for the light bulbs that now lit each room of the house.

We sat at a table underneath the light fixture, which was placed on the center beam of the living room mere moments ago.  Children quickly moved about the quaint home, flipping each light switch in excitement and watching as the room toggled between utter darkness and soft white light.  They would then giggle and move to the next switch and repeat.  Meanwhile, the elderly gentleman who owned the house lit two small pieces of wood, thickly laden with sap, on fire to demonstrate how the dwelling was lit during the hours of darkness prior to this day.  As if in some small inaugurate celebration, we killed the lights one by one until we were left in the dim red glow of the burning sticks.

In those short moments of flickering shadows it was not hard to reflect upon the sheer significance of electricity and magnitude of our work to these families.  It was neither difficult to see the impact of simple, sustainable technology nor was it tough to comprehend how quality of life could be improved so easily.  It had taken mere hours to equip the home with a car battery charged by a solar panel, five lights, and an outlet.  In the same amount of time it might take to travel to work back at home, we had empowered a family to bring themselves out of darkness.

This was not difficult to understand.  However what was becoming ever more troublesome was the knowledge that a few days ago I sat comfortably in my house in the US enjoying everything the first world had to offer, and in another few days I would be returning to that life. Such guilt is tricky emotion. It is not the guilt of wrongdoing or carelessness. These guilts are easier to handle, requiring of us an apology or a rectifying act. Rather, this guilt arises when you realize that by some chance of fate you pulled the long straw, and you are now learning the beautiful but difficult stories of those who did not. What this guilt asks of us is not always clear, but I imagine it asks of us to use our abilities to make things better.

I went to Nicaragua armed simply with a camera and a goal.  I could not bring the people of America to Nicaragua, but I could attempt to bring Nicaragua to the people of America because now the stories of both are linked. Somebody’s small donation in America made a big impact in Nicaragua. Simple technologies developed in one country helped lift people out of poverty in another.  One person, living hundreds of miles away, made a difference in the life of an impoverished family, atop mountain in coffee country, once existing in darkness but now living in light.

Click here to see more of Slade's pictures of this project.

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