Sirona Cares

New Year, New Challenges

Sirona's team hit the ground running in 2013.  In Haiti all stations deployed for the USAID program have received all of the Ti Soley battery kits needed for each unit to support 83 homes.  This grant activity is now complete and Sirona's new franchisees are working hard to create sustainable businesses with their equipment. 

With regard to equipment, the IEEE is working with Sirona to resolve an issue with the original home kits that we deployed.  Some customers have experienced problems with their portable battery kit holding a charge.  The technical issue has been identified, and the IEEE team is working with Sirona on a retrofit campaign that will take place this spring.  In the meantime new equipment procured by Sirona has been deployed to the charging stations so that they may continue to service customers without interruption.

The IEEE has been an incredible partner for Sirona, and while an issue like this is a new challenge, the fact that this organization has stood behind this program and stepped up for the retrofit speaks volumes with regard to their dedication to bring light to those without.  Three new groups in Africa have been replicating this business model and we wish them well as they tackle the business management issues.  Sirona is committed to give as much field experience as we have gained thus far to these new groups and empower them to succeed in Camaroon, South Sudan and Nigeria.

Sirona is in the final stages of securing a grant from the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) to light 3,000 more homes in Haiti.  This time, rather than using solar charging stations we will be lighting most homes by rechrging Ti Soley kits at end of grid "Energy Stores".  We are evaluating sites for these stores now and undertaking market research to select the sites most likely to succeed.  There will also be two solar stations deployed under this grant on the island of Ille le Vache.  We look forward to beginning this work later this spring.

The Jatropha farming project is running well, over 250,000 trees have been planted and our farmers are eager for the first oil pressing and charcoal production that will occur in Port au Prince.  The press was damaged during shipping and has now been repaired.  We are ready to start making Jatropha oil for sale (to displace diesel fuel), and a form of alternative charcoal that burns cleaner than traditional charcoal. Pictured here are farmers I met with in December, 2012.

Finally, we are working to build both the Foundation and the Sirona Haiti business.  We appreciate the donors who sent funding over the holidays and appreciate your continued support of our work. It is going to be an exciting year, and my goal is to keep this blog up to date so that you may follow our progress!

Catching Up: Sirona's Progress

St. Marc: Sirona Customer Sighting

Thanksgiving has just passed here in America, and with gratitude on my mind I want to thank all of the supporters of Sirona's work.  It has been an amazing adventure and we are only succeeding due to the support of our donors, the IEEE, our volunteers, and our team in Haiti.  It takes a lot of people who believe in a vision to make it a reality, and Sirona Cares thanks all who have shared our vision and provided the support they could to bring light and sustainable development to communites throughout Haiti.

 

The USAID program to light 747 houses in the St. Marc communes of Haiti has rested near completion for weeks now.  We deployed nine SunBlazer units in August, each with 40 home kits for customers.  The units are operating well, and the communities have been excited to have access to affordable electricity.  The catch is that 43 customer home kits per unit have been stuck in customs.  Anyone who has shipped to Haiti has probably experienced a hiccup at the port, and unfortunately it was our turn to go through the extended process of claiming goods.  We should be distributing the additional kits to bring all units up to 83 homes served by each SunBlazer in the next two weeks.  With the bad there is always good, and the upside is that the delay allowed the new franchise Operators time to gain experience and run their businesses with fewer homes served.  All are ready now to add the new homes, and increase the profitability of their businesses.

STAR TIDES, Pentagon Courtyard

Sirona was happy to attend the STAR TIDES demonstrations this year in Washington D.C.  STAR TIDES is a DOD funded program that highlights technologies that can be used to stabilize stressed (post-war, post-disaster) communities.  The demonstrations proved to be an excellent opportunity for networking amongst shelter/water/energy/communications groups, and Sirona's Director ran a workshop for participants focused on "High Tech Solutions in Low Tech Environments".  The talk was geared at how we have successfully deployed our equipment into rural Haiti without suffering any loss due to theft or tampering.  For followers of the blog you already know, the answer rests upon the strength of community in rural Haiti.  With 83 homes reliant on a station the odds of tampering with the SunBlazer unit has dropped to zero.  Giving the community control of the unit has proven a successful method of mitigating those risks.

 

A new company, Sirona Haiti, S.A. was formed to collect revenue from stations and provide for the service technician to visit and repairs to be made as necessary.  We have had technical issues with two stations during the past year and support from the IEEE volunteers has been critical. Our biggest challenge has been that of achieving true sustainability.  We work in a tough environment, and we provide a new product.  Reception of our equipment is very positive, but shifting an informal economy to a formal economy is challenging. 

We have experienced the growing pains one would expect: the impact of a missed payment from an Operator, technical issues, port issues, even two hurricanes, flat tires.  I am proud of our team, and happy to report that we are in successfully working through these issues as they arise.  As the Creyole saying goes: "Piti piti na rive" (little by little we arrive).  With new projects on the horizon I say with confidence, we are getting there.

The photo above was taken along the road by one of our team members and texted to me.  What you see is a customer with their kit in tow.  I'm not sure if they were going to recharge, or to use it in town that evening, all I am sure of is this: a product that we placed in the community is in use, making a difference, and that is a very exciting thing to get a candid photo of.

Lighting the Mountain Villages of St. Marc

I am sitting on top of a mountain, literally, in Haiti.  We have made the treacherous drive up hauling a SunBlazer that will provide this community with its first access to electricity.  I am not speaking lightly when I say treacherous, as this was a steep, winding one-lane road.  At one point we met a large truck coming down too fast and we were lucky enough to both avoid colliding and avoid the truck going off the steep edge.  We arrived safely, to a magnificent view and the fresh cool air of the mountains.  This community farms coffee, corn, beans, and much more I’m sure.  It is very fertile, and absolutely stunning.

As with every deployment, while there are only a few present when we arrive, in time there is a crowd.  Boys play, men watch, and the women and girls watch as well from a short distance.  The crowd will grow constantly and continue to do so long after our departure, especially here because it is nearly dusk.  By the time we are gone, the lights will be on guiding interested villagers to the location to see the milestone that their village has reached today.

Here in rural Haiti there simply is no access to electricity.  In even the cities like St. Marc, from which we are operating as a base for this nine-unit deployment, there is little power that does not come from generators at larger businesses and hotels.  There is some grid power but for reasons unknown to us there is little evidence of energy that the local utility provides.

The Ti Soley (“Little Sun” in Haitian Kreyol) kits that we provide with lighting kits allow homes to enjoy three lights: two mounted pull-chain bulbs as well as a flashlight on the kit itself.  These have lasted our customers for five days on average before needing to be brought to the SunBlazer solar charging station.  The station and kits provide enough energy to reach the bottom rung of the Millennium Development Goals with regard to access to electricity.  This is a great milestone for our communities.  From this base level they can begin to enjoy life without kerosene fumes, and access to communication.  They can use a radio and charge their cell phones.  Energy changes lives, improves health, and gives those who have access to it opportunities that they would not have without it.

This is a business venture and we have spent a lot of time and energy training our nine new Operators.  They are entrepreneurs (as are their customers, who will be charging the phones of neighbors who were not able to access a Ti Soley kit).  Revenue generated by a franchise covers monthly maintenance visits, support for the local Operator (school/community development group/etc.) and Sirona’s operations and expansion.

 

When You're Holding the Tiger By The Tail, Don't Let Go!

Johannesburg, South Africa; Witts University

The IEEE convened a conference at the Witts University last week and Sirona was there to participate in a CSI (Community Solutions Initiative) working group that worked all week to educate and collaborate with African based NGOs on the successful work relating to the SunBlazer in Haiti.  The university was symbolically appropriate as it is focused upon social justice.  Nelson Mandella attended this university.

The technology for the Rural Electricity Program is simple.  It is designed to be a radically affordable way to bring basic electricity to homes deprived of energy where solar power is appropriate.  The business plan for the program is unique in that it is an economically viable way to bring power to the poorest people.  By charging customers roughly what the household pays for Kerosene alone we can bring enough power to a home with energy efficient lighting to not only illuminate a home, but also provide the subscriber with enough energy to charge cellular phones.  The product has been eagerly sought and is currently over-subscribed in Haiti, and now we are taking the fist steps to scaling in Africa.

Many exciting things are happening, and the days are filled with a lot of hard work.  In Haiti we are fulfilling a USAID grant that will bring light to 747 homes by the end of next month in the St. Marc communes; and we have the funding in place for an additional 1,253 by the end of the year.  We are beginning the process of in-country assembly, ironing out supply chains, and quickly moving the program into its next iteration.  Today we also received notification from UNEP that we have received another grant to undertake an end-of-grid program to enroll an additional 3,000 homes in our program and create thirty new small businesses.

In Africa the working group members came from South Sudan, Cameroon and Nigeria.  The CSI is eager to move forward and IEEE is committing to a ten year plan wherein 50 million people will receive electricity through this program.  IEEE will donate the equipment, and Sirona is a key player working to get the program scaling. 

The most memorable quote from the days we spent working in Johannesburg was the title of this blog entry: "When you are holding the tiger by the tail, don't let go!" (or else one of two things will happen: you will be mauled, or you will be left in the dust).  Wise words and a worthy challenge for us as we move forward both in Haiti and beyond.

From Haiti to Africa, and Back Again

Two weeks ago I was in Port au Prince feeling the heat of the Haitian summer, and now I am in Johannesburg feeling the cold of an African winter. On the 18th I will be back in Haiti's summer again.  

In Haiti we made final preparations for the assembly and deployment of nine new SunBlazer units to the St. Marc communes.  These are the last of the IEEE donated equipment shipped from New York to Port au Prince and the units have since cleared customs.  We met with USAID and Chemonics in St. Marc to confirm our methodology for selecting the nine Operators thereby completing the second of five milestones in this grant.  Our selection, training and deployment schedule is set and by the 20th of August 747 St. Marc homes will be lit.  Next we will use the funding from the USAID grant to build nine more units for deployment before the end of the year.  These will be the first SunBlazers built entirely in Haiti.

Everything is running smoothly.  Operator selection is occurring in St. Marc, candidates are being interviewed, and selection should be completed by the 20th of July.  On the equipment side we have secured an ideal location for final assembly of the units.  Six jobs were created by this assembly project and these workers will most likely form the backbone of the Haitian assembly workforce that we will be hiring.

I left Haiti on a very positive note and spent a week preparing for our trip to Johannesburg, South Africa.  On Friday afternoon we began the 30 hour journey to the IEEE conference, Power Africa 2012.  Sirona was invited to run workshops alongside the conference on the Rural Electricity Program with the Community Solutions Initiative group.  The IEEE provided the seed funding and technical expertise for the first units (fifteen in all) with the understanding that securing the resources to scale the program is the responsibility of Sirona.  The IEEE/Sirona partnership has been very successful and will have lit over 2000 homes in Haiti by years end.  Both organizations are very excited about opportunities to expand this work beyond Haiti.

The Power Africa conference begins today and our three day workshop begins tomorrow.  Immediately following the conference we begin our journey back to Haiti.  Paul, the COO, goes directly from Johannesburg to Haiti to complete the nine units for St. Marc, and I go back to California and then on to Haiti on the 18th.  Preparing for this conference has given me time to reflect on the amazing partners we have found in Haiti, and all of the hard work and dedication it took to get here.  I am proud to be in Africa telling stories of Haiti that show engenuity, persistence, and achievement; and I look forward to getting back to Haiti to meet the next nine Operators that our local managment will select this week.

A quick note of thanks: I want to thank Brooke Scarborough a Sirona Intern who gave up a month of her summer vacation and spent that time in Haiti helping with the energy project.  Not everyone is cut out for internship in Haiti, but it must be said that Brooke was a great addition to the team and she will be missed by many.

Rural Electrification Goals for Haiti: 1,920 Homes by Summers End

Work on the IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Project continues, all day every day, regardless of the fact that the blog falls behind at times.  In Haiti, our six operating SunBlazers deliver energy to 240 homes a day.  Every month our field technicians visit each station to ensure that everything is operating perfectly.  Haiti's environment is a challenging one, and so far the units deployed in June have withstood the Caribbean climate and everything is working well.  Our customers are satisfied with their home energy kits and only a few kits have needed repair since deployment.  Repairs are most frequently fixing loose connections resulting from a unit being dropped.  In a few cases the kits have required resetting because the battery was drained to the point of engaging the low voltage disconnect.  Our kits are designed for longevity, and the repairs have been handled by our field technicians without problem.  This type of warranty is very rare in Haiti.  When asked by new Operators how long the station will last, we are always happy to say, "As long as you pay your lease".  Operator and customer satisfaction are critical to us, and the lease payments allow us to provide full service technicians and replacement of parts as needed.

We are preparing to import nine new units into Haiti this spring which were donated by the IEEE and the CSI volunteers.  We will build an additional nine units in Haiti this summer with a grant from USAID.  USAID/OTI has many projects in the St. Marc area and we will be deploying nine of our units there as soon as the grant process is complete.  With the addition of these 18 units Sirona will have 24 units operating servicing 1,920 homes.  This grant with USAID is almost complete, however Sirona must complete it's registration process in Haiti.  We are busy with completion of that process now.

NGO registration has historically been a process that takes many years.  Rather than engage in the expense of registration Sirona has partnered with registered entities and worked without issue for the past three years.  Now, however, our projects have grown in magnitude and it is time to complete the official processes of full Haitian registration.  The current government has been working to speed the registration processes up, and we are optimistic that we will be registered in the coming weeks.

Last week Sirona received strong support from the Secretary of Energy, Dr. Rene Jean Jumeau, in the form of a Letter of Intent.  This letter allows us to operate legally for a year while we complete the formal registration requirements.  The support from the Haitian government has been steady and we are very grateful for all of the efforts that have been made to help Sirona provide energy to rural Haitians.  It is clear that President Martelly's administration is very focused upon energy as one of its top goals. Dr. Jumeau works to coordinate all of the actors in the energy sector to increase the impact that each organization might have on its own.  The admininstration's goal?  200,000 homes in two years.  Sirona is excited to be assisting with this goal.

The blog lapses from time to time simply because we are so busy with all of the projects that are in process.  Soon I hope to be reporting the more exciting news of deployment and the impact that having basic, sustainable energy gives to people who live far from the grid in Haiti.

Progress Reports from Haiti

Good news from the field. I arrived in Haiti Wednesday and hit the ground running. As it is when you work here, either a lot happens fast or nothing seems to happen at all. Since last summer the trips have all been of the first type. Fast paced and full of exciting motion as we launched and now seek to grow the IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Program and the Jatropha Program.

Our Jatropha program is scaling quickly. We will plant 100,000 new trees this year moving quickly once the rains start next month. Over 1,000 farmers are signed up to collect seedlings from our nurseries and care for them in their small farms. From its start, Sirona has worked to build sustainable communities. To that end we work with alternative energy and we support those who care for and educate children in our communities. During our first year we raised the money to feed the children at three orphanages 1/4 of the years food. Never wishing to create total reliance we have assisted as we could when donors wish to help children.

Last year we had some farmers who wished to expand their gardens but needed money to allow them to do so. Sirona lent ten farmers $50 each, and rather than seek repayment in cash we asked that the farmers bring $50 worth of food to the local school and the committee in charge of the Jatropha Program would keep track of the fulfillment of the loans. We reduced the administrative burden on our side and we were able to ensure that hundreds of children would receive lunch at school. The first meals were served this past week and there are many, many happy people in the community. It is wonderful when everybody wins.

I spent Thursday and Friday in Grand Goave with our Country Manager, Lexidan Edme. It was a coincidence that I was in the city at the same time the Edmes were, so they brought me out for our meetings that were planned for the weekend. In Haiti you take opportunities when they are in front of you. We discussed deployment of a new IEEE product, the Light Stick, as well as our current status with USAID funding proposals. I had lengthy interviews with our field technicians and have a good understanding of what is happening at each of our six SunBlazer sites. Bottom line: its all still a success.

IEEE/Sirona: Rural Electrification Project Ramping Up

The IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Project is designed to do many things in addition to bringing light to rural people in Haiti.  The project is economically sustainable, and relies upon a customer base that pays a monthly fee for electric service.  The cost to the Haitian family is $6.70 per month (or 250 Haitian Goude), a price set to be less than they were paying for kerosene, candles and cell phone charging.

In addition, our work encourages entrepreneurship and development of a formal economy.  Customers pay their fee to the local Operator who runs the solar 1.5 Kw SunBlazer unit and pays a monthly lease to Sirona.  In this way our economics are stable and we can both service the equipment for the long term, and roll revenue into more units and supply energy to more homes.  Every unit creates a business.  Finally, our program is designed to create jobs.  We have worked hard to prove that our model works, and thanks to the rural people of Haiti we have shown that we can deliver a SunBlazer into rural areas and successfully collect payments for seven months.  We have not had a single incident of theft or damage to a unit, every home has paid, and every Operator has paid.  Now it is time to create more jobs: assembly jobs.

Over the holidays both the Sirona and IEEE Community Solutions Initiative (CSI) teams rolled up our sleeves and readied ourselves to do a lot of work in Haiti this spring.  USAID is working with us on potentially funding two grants, one which will place another 18 SunBlazer units in rural Haiti in the next few months, and the other to build out an assembly facility in Port au Prince so that Haitian jobs will be created to build more SunBlazers.  Nine units are currently in New York partially assembled.  These units were donated by the IEEE and their volunteers are preparing not only the units, but also the assembly processes, for delivery in Haiti.  IEEE and Sirona team members will work together to establish Haitian assembly of SunBlazers beginning with the completion of the first nine units in Haiti.  These units are destined for St. Marc where USAID/OTI have projects underway.  Then, nine new units will be built in Haiti and sent to communities currently on Sirona's waiting list.  There are many contractual details to work out, so much of the work this month has been done from California via e-mail and in New York by the IEEE members.  We anticipate returning to Haiti sometime next month.  Our Haitian In-Country Manager, Lex Edme (pictured above) has already made trips to St. Marc with OTI to evaluate potential Operators in communities selected by the OTI team.

President Martelly recently stated that his government's goal is to reach 200,000 homes in two years.  Sirona will be working alongside to accomplish this goal.  Our Sirona and IEEE/CSI teams are made of big thinkers and action oriented people.  We dream big, we work hard, and we enjoy seeing the positive change that our work brings in rural Haiti now, and eventually in other countries where energy poverty persists.

Sustainable Change Occurring in Haiti through Alternative Energy

This week brings the end of three years of work in Haiti. As a friend commented recently, we really have come a long way. I am thrilled and amazed by the progress we have made towards our mission to build sustainable communities by placing the power to create, use and sell alternative energy into the hands of the poor. The most exciting thing to report about 2011 is that it was the year in which we empowered Haitians to change the lives of people in their communities, sustainably.

With over 100,000 jatropha trees planted (and an additional 150,000 funded for next year) we will soon see dramatic economic changes in rural Haiti. Each tree produces enough oil-rich seeds to create a gallon of oil that is a drop-in replacement for diesel fuel. This means that for the next 25-45 these 100,000 trees will bring economic improvement to rural Haitians while the trees improve soil and reverse deforestation. A critical byproduct of producing jatropha oil is a charcoal replacement briquette that is made by pressing the residue or seedcake from the pressing process. Our nurseries each produce 10,000 seedlings every three months and farmers eagerly take these seedlings to their land and plant them without displacing any food crops. Our press needs repairs and as soon as it is ready we will make our first oil. 2012 promises to be another incredible year.

We end 2011 with 240 homes that have their first electricity. Far from the grid these homes are serviced by the IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Program. The IEEE worked with Sirona to design and ultimately deploy six Sunblazer units. These are 1.5kW solar charging stations run by entrepreneurial Operators. Each Operator has forty customers who pay a modest $6.70 per month for basic electricity. Customers receive an energy kit that has a rechargeable battery, lights and the ability to charge cellular phones. When the kit is exhausted (five to seven days on average) the customer brings the battery kit back to the charging station and three hours later the kit is ready to return to their home. The IEEE and the Sirona team have been thrilled to see that, due to our culturally appropriate business plan, all 240 customers have paid every month, every Operator has made his lease payment to Sirona keeping the program sustainable, and nothing has been stolen or damaged since deployment in June.

This program has had such success that the Haitian Secretary of Energy has announced that Sirona Haiti's electricity program is the model for electrification of rural villages. USAID is supporting the program by building Sirona a Haitian assembly facility. This spring the first Haitian built Sunblazers will roll out to rural communities and provide the first electricity many have ever had--at a price lower than what they are currently paying for noxious kerosene, candles and cell phone charging.

We are very excited for next year, the groundwork has been laid for amazing progress to occur in 2012. As the year ends we thank all of our partners and friends in Haiti, our supporters, all of our donors, all of the IEEE volunteers and all of the funding provided by the IEEE for the Sunblazer pilot units. We thank the Government of Haiti for including Sirona in the energy sector strategic planning process and inviting us to display our unit at the Caricom Energy Week events. Many have read the article in World Magazine, and we appreciate all of the kind words and donations that this article has generated. Thank you, one and all. 2012 promises to be a very exciting year full of progress in Haiti and beyond. Year end donations are graciously accepted by the Sirona Cares Foundation!

Chasing Away the Night One Village at a Time

Please enjoy this guest blog from Rick Davis, Tech Assist Haiti:

One does not have to spend time in Haiti to appreciate the simple miracle that is artificial light. Each of us has memories of camping trips or major utility blackouts or hurricanes that we can reach back to and recall how absolutely dark is the night on this planet of ours.

An occasional foray into the night of the wilderness does not frighten us. It does not change our lifestyle. Our children are not impacted in their futures by lack of light. It’s just a camping trip. It is just a temporary utility problem. It’s just a hurricane. Soon we will be back in our warm cocoon of light; turning on a switch to chase away the night.

IEEE and Sirona Cares are chasing away the night for the rural people of Haiti one village at a time.

I was thrilled to be able to visit one of the six sites where an IEEE/Sirona entrepreneur-managed charging station is based. What I saw has convinced me that lighting a million homes in Haiti is possible using this model.

Michelle Lacourcere has posted the facts of her recent review of the sites. The facts are as stated. The people are not only extending their days into the night they are gaining a tremendous amount of self respect. In Haiti as in just about every place in the world there is a social divide between rural and urban populations; we certainly have that here in the United States. The simple act of turning on a light switch is no longer the great chasm that rural peoples must span to consider themselves modern. In six villages in Haiti that is.

The base stations are underutilized in a major way. This is a wonderful problem that can be solved in numerous ways. The excellent design and engineering of the base charging station permits one to imagine all sorts of additional utilizations, and revenue sources to the entrepreneur, that spring from the fact the four or five battery units are charged each day. It is my belief that the additional uses of the energy being produced will be provided by the people of each village. Do they need power for a tele-learning center? Electricity for a medical clinic to serve ten or twenty villages in the vicinity? An ice machine to keep water cold for those long humid days? Human ingenuity being what it is I cannot begin to think of all of the ways this gift of affordable, renewable, non-polluting energy will prove to be for the rural population of Haiti.

I have been privileged to view the IEEE/Sirona rural electrification project from inception through to successful pilot.  Indeed it is a privilege to see this project so well designed, built, implemented and managed. So much of what I do in Haiti every day encompasses wonderful ideas that remain, forever, ideas. Kudos to all for a job well done.

Rick Davis

Tech Assist for Haiti