The following video is footage that I took during the trip a couple of weeks ago. I went to Haiti to visit all six of our units and interview our Operators, Field Technicians and most importantly, our customers.
All 240 original customers are paying their leases each month (roughly $6.70 US) for basic energy in their homes supplied by rechargeable battery kits.
All six Operators love the equipment and every one has asked for more.
Over 2,000 homes are on our waiting list at the moment, and all of those are within the vicinity of an operating system.
As we have the funding to expand we will reach many people and provide a life-changing service. Because our model is economically sustainable, it provides a rate of return to potential investors.
Thanks to the IEEE volunteers who built and funded these six stations, to the Haitian government for inviting us to their energy sector strategic planning workshop, to the amazing supporters of our work, and most of all, to our Haitian customers and crew who have made this a success.
We are currently raising funds to expand our program and set up in-country assembly facilities. Please watch the video and consider a donation of any size. Many thanks, in advance!
Last Monday and Tuesday I was invited to participate in the strategic planning process for the Government of Haiti's energy sector. It was a fascinating workshop focused upon one goal: getting energy to Haitians. President Martelly spoke to us thanking us for our assistance. He pointed out that Haiti must develop energy solutions so that commerce, education and healthcare can move forward. His administration has named energy as a key issue, and it was very clear that this group was focused on solutions, not talk.
The utility, EDH, has an overwhelmed grid which needs significant improvement to begin serving the population effectively. It was clear that this will take years, and rather than wait the goal of this workshop was to consider alternative energy projects that could help bring energy to Haitians beyond the grid. Sirona was invited to give a 20 minute presentation and it was very well received. Rather than promote studies, we were able to give evidence of a concrete program that is providing an energy solution to 240 homes today in rural Haiti. During my presentation I turned on the light from a home kit.
It was, needless to say, very impressive that our IEEE/Sirona Haiti program had 100% payment for three months straight from our original customers. There was no incident of theft, loss or damage to any of our equipment, and the waiting list exceeds 2,000 homes eager to participate. I am thrilled to announce that following this workship we are working on several fronts to scale our pilot in the coming months and begin Haitian assembly of new SunBlazer units. There were other solar, hydro and wind groups that gave impressive presentations. My takeaway was this: Haiti is keen on exploring and promoting alternative energy as it improves it's grid, and this is a very positive step for Haitians.
In a developed country the per capita energy consumption per year is 4,000Kw. In Jamaica, a developing country, the per capita energy consumption per year is 2100Kw (basic electricity is available to the majority of Jamaican homes). In Haiti, the figure is only 75Kw per capita, per year. There is plenty of room for many solutions to work together, and I believe that in the future Haiti may become a leader in alternative energy for taking this innovative approach to their current problem.
I have been working on two UN Foundation working groups to advise the Secretary General on next years UN Campaign: The Year of Access to Sustainable Energy for All. The goal of the campaign is to get sustainable energy to the 4 billion people who currently lack it by 2030. It was exciting to see Haiti taking these steps, and I will not be surprised to see them lead the world in the future by supplying a great deal of their population with renewable energy.
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.
I arrived in Haiti on Wednesday and in three days visited seven of Haiti's nine departments, the majority of the country. Through this I earned my new name: The Flying Lady. Of course the goal of this travel was to visit each of the six solar Sunblazer units which supply basic electricity to 40 homes each.
I made a template of questions for the Operators so that I could compare results. What I can summarize is this:
In June we brought equipment valued at approximately $150,000 and deployed it throughout Haiti. As we near October I can report that loss of equipment is zero. Not a single kit, bulb or unit has vanished. The communities are so incredibly proud to have access to the light that they are protecting it. There have been no security incidents in three months.
We expected, of course, that there would be a failure point in the pilot, and after noting that all of the equipment has remained secure we looked to the records for customer lease payments. Every one of the 240 households leasing our light kits paid every month, on time. Coming up with any type of payment is extremely difficult in rural Haiti, but the program is not sustainable unless it is a business. That business requires that customers pay the Operators, and they in turn pay a monthly lease to Sirona Haiti so that we may repay our investors. Otherwise we cannot build upon what we have begun. The household rate is currently $50 Haitian dollars a month for unlimited recharges, about $6.50 US. People wish the cost was lower, of course, yet nobody has failed to pay or returned their kit for economic reasons. Actually, nobody has returned a kit at all. Every customer who signed up in July has kept their kit.
How popular is the program? I asked Operators how many people they had waiting for kits and the list exceeds 2,000 altogether. If we assume that the household size is six, there are easily 12,000 people waiting to receive access to our equipment.
When I attended SOCAP in San Francisco earlier this month the only criticism of our business plan was that it did not include funds for publicity/promotion. I tried to explain that this was not a necessary component for our budget. Placing a light in the darkest of night IS promotion, and from this trip I know for certain that I am correct. The only promotion needed at this time is for locating potential funders of the next step.
Asking Haitians how they are benefitting from their electricity is much like asking you, "exactly what is it about having access to air to breathe makes your life better?". I did ask the question of course, to Operators and customers, and these are a few of their responses:
-I put one light in my house and one outside so that others could share in the light. Now they all gather in front of my house at night to talk, children play, it is wonderful. -Our kerosene lamps made our ceilings black, the fumes were hard to breathe, our clothes smelled... our life is changed by this light. We used to need to buy kerosene, buy matches, and in the dark we would find the gas, fill our lamp and light it; the lights are so easy for us, we just turn them on. We breathe so much better. -People in the city have lights, and now we do. We are very proud. -Our children can study now with good light. -If I am reading a book and it gets dark, I can continue to read at night.
Each comment was delivered with a beaming smile. Every village is incredibly appreciative. I was amazed, and continue to be, that there has been no failure point in our project at all. We are ready to scale up and begin assembling units in Haiti. Now it is an issue of funding, but I am very encouraged by what I have seen this week.
Tomorrow and Tuesday I will be attending and speaking at a workshop dedicated to rural electricity solutions in Haiti. The workshop is hosted by the government of Haiti and all of the key decision makers and stakeholders will be present. I am thrilled to have been invited and hope to make a good demonstration of our work, and its impact. The positive implications of our work are so very obvious to me, I am very optimistic that the work will be well received and scaling to reach one million people in five years will begin.
After a visit to Haiti people leave with only one of two reactions. Some think Haiti is the worst place that they have ever seen. Heartbroken and frightened after seeing extreme poverty they flee and never return. The other reaction is one of being hooked by Haiti. For life.
I fell in love with Haiti, and have spent three years working out what it is exactly that I can do to bring the most change for communities there. Initially it was the children I focused upon, how to get them food, how to get them into school. In the first few months of running this organization we raised the funds to feed four orphanages 1/4 of the years food. While this was a great accomplishment, I must admit that once I sent the funds I was deflated. I realized that this would be a perpetual cycle, and it was then that I developed a strong bent towards creating truly sustainable communities by creating ways that people in the communities could earn more and feed themselves. We handled the largest post-earthquake aid delivery from Northern California, but again, like the money for food I had to weigh the cost of that project against it's impact. 20,000 people received basic necessities, at a cost of roughly $20,000. This $1 per person ratio was not bad, however I know that $20,000 can be spent in ways that will have lasting impact that far exceeds the clothing and toiletries we shipped.
Our work on the IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Project shows exactly how funds can be spent to create massive change in places like Haiti. The 1.5 Kw solar charging station provides life-changing benefits for 40 households. Kerosene lamps are dangerous. Their fumes noxious and many people, especially children, suffer terrible burns every year. We have empowered people in Haiti by bringing jobs, business, and a step out of the darkness. Today one of the orphanages we had assisted is able to buy food with income generated by their Sunblazer unit.
Our six pilot stations are operating perfectly and were not affected by recent storms. All were visited by our Haitian field technicians in the past two weeks and interviews with both station Operators as well as customers confirm that this is a hugely successful endeavor, and that people simply love it. The project is so embraced by the communities that all six units are safe and secure, and all home kits accounted for. There has been no theft or tampering with any of the units. This reflects another benefit of business over charity: we take better care of things that we work for than things that are given to us.
Our work is focused upon listening to Haitians about what they want, and they often say, "It's better to teach a man to fish than to give a man a fish". Below is an excerpt from an e-mail I received after our trip. Comments like this are encouraging, and let us know that not only in Haiti are we on the right track with our work:
"My husband, Eric, shared with me the information that you passed on to him regarding Sirona Cares. Both the Jatropha Project and the IEEE Rural Electricity Program are amazing! What strikes me is your emphasis on building sustainable communities within Haiti and beyond. Truly, as stated in the Jatropha Project Overview, "charity is debilitating." When I was in Haiti in March, I was truly struck by the Haitian people and their strong desire to have jobs and a chance for a better life. In contrast, there appeared to be many well-intentioned groups offering aide to the people of Haiti. While no one would argue that the need in Haiti is great, the greatest need is not for foreigners to come in and "rescue" Haitians through foreign aide, but rather the need is for the establishment/building of sustainable communities.
We commend your vision to build sustainable communities! We also desire to become a part of building sustainable communities in Haiti and beyond. Thanks for sharing your story with us and giving us hope and confirmation that it is possible!"
The mission of Sirona Cares is "To build sustainable communities". We place the power to create, use and sell alternative energy into the hands of the worlds poorest people. The goal is to create cycles of sustainability relating to energy and economics, and this vision is being realized in Haiti.
Pastor Honore Guerrier has been running an orphanage in Jeremie since the early '80s. We met him in 2009 while visiting the area to consider the Jatropha Program. Pastor Honore, like so many others in Haiti, was trapped in a freefall situation trying to find food and support for the fifty children in his care. Charity was his only avenue of support, and finding aid in his isolated community was a monthly challenge.
Over the past two years we have received donations specifically earmarked for supporting childrens care, education and health; and we have directed some of those funds to Pastor Honore. We have provided food, clothing, toiletries, and assisted with rebuilding a section of his orphanage following the earthquake. Last year we assisted with school uniforms and school supplies for a number of his children and supported the group as they struggled with a bout of cholera wherein 10 children were hospitalized. Always grateful, Pastor Honore has consistently provided us with his thanks and a clear record showing his stewardship of funds that we have supplied to him.
When the IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Project moved off of the drawing board and into reality we looked to groups we already know and trust, and Pastor Honore was selected as an Operator for one of our pilot units. The unit was deployed July 4th and we had a joyful evening there setting up twenty of the lighting kits to check them. The children were mezmerized by the lightbulbs. The orphanage itself has not had electricity for eight years, so none of the children under eight had ever experienced electric light in their home. There was singing, dancing, and sheer joy that night. I will never forget watching a boy pull the chain and jump back when the lightbulb illuminated. Imagine being seven or eight and never experiencing something so simple as turning on a light yourself.
We checked in with Pastor Honore the following morning and found him holding a customer seminar. Our project has moved him from being the requestor of aid to the businessman providing a service to his community. All forty kits were quickly distributed to customers ready to pay him to have light in their home, and after making his lease payment for the generator Pastor Honore will have an income stream to pay for his childrens food.
This is the creation of sustainability. Clean energy lighting an orphanage, lighting a neighborhood, and feeding children. Business instead of charity creates sustainability. As Pastor Honore proves his ability to maintain the franchise he will be allowed more units, up to five. Ultimately he may service 200 homes and finally enjoy economic stability in his orphanage. Very like the moment the child was dazzled by his ability to turn on the light, Pastor Honore is enjoying the feeling of dignity that comes from self-sufficiency. Pastor Honore is Haitian, and while he would not make the connection, for me this was an "Independence Day" that I will never forget.
Sirona and IEEE/CSI members probably have a million stories to share from our recent trip. We delivered basic electricity to over 1400 people in rural Haiti and started six franchise businesses by delivering solar-based IEEE/Sirona Haiti "Sunblazer" generating stations designed to re-charge forty customer home kits each. The following blog entries will summarize the deployment of these first six units.
Deuxieme Plaine, near Petit Goave, is the home of our incredible Jatropha farming group. Their unit was delivered easily, towed by a very small Tracker jeep. The group operating this franchise is known by Sirona to have very strong organizational skills, and not only have they leased their initial 40 home kits, they already have a waiting list for forty more home kits. As we find more funding more units will be deployed. An Operator may have access to a maximum of five units, bringing power to 200 homes through their franchise.
I thought it might it might be interesting to show the highlights of this deployment by video. The best part for our team was being allowed to attend the first in-home battery kit installation. The pride of the field technicians in their new work was obvious, and the joy expressed by the family is something I will never forget. When the lights came on the wife cried, and when her husband got home he practically danced as he thanked us as best he could, in spanish.
Enjoy the following clip:
The term "IEEE" (the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is representative of the many subgroups and organizations within the IEEE and working with the IEEE that have participated in bringing the project to Haiti. These include the HTC (Humanitarian Technology Challenge group), the PES (Power and Energy Society), the NPSS (Nuclear Plasma Sciences Society), IEEE Canada, IEEE Region 9, Vodaphone, the UN Foundation, John Lorts Engineering and Nextek Power Systems as a sponsor as well as the dedicated employees who dedicated much time and energy to helping this program succeed. The term "Sirona" encompasses all donors, supporters and in-country partners who have helped to bring light to people in Haiti.
Yesterday I received a call from Lex Edmé who is a key partner on the ground in Haiti overseeing the IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Program. He was excited and very anxious for me to return to Haiti as soon as possible.
His request was not related to any problem. We now have six solar-based generators being run by six franchisees. These Sunblazer units
are bringing basic, reliable, sustainable electricity to 240 homes in rural Haiti. I returned from the deployment trip last Friday night.
The reason Lex wanted me to return immediately was to go where he went yesterday. A potential funder had coordinated a site visit with Lex and he had taken them up to St. Etienne. The group interviewed the Operator and then they made house calls visiting the customers.
Lex said that yesterday was the best day of his life. The value of this project crystalized for Lex as the customers relayed their joy from receiving a home kit. They have light at night, their children can study, they can listen to a radio and charge their phones. The impact of this venture was what Lex wanted me back to see.
I will return soon, and I will look forward to seeing these things for myself. There are many, many people who have helped make this program a reality, and more than 1400 people in the Haitian countryside looking for some way to say "Thank you!".
Sirona and IEEE/CSI members probably have a million stories to share from our recent trip. We delivered basic electricity to over 1400 people in rural Haiti and started six franchise businesses by delivering solar-based IEEE/Sirona Haiti "Sunblazer" generating stations designed to re-charge forty customer home kits each. The following blog entries will summarize the deployment of these first six units.
St. Etienne is located on the mountain road from Leogane to Jacmel. The St. Etienne unit was deployed first because it was closest to Mission of Hope in Grand Goave where the units arrived, were repaired, tested and inventoried. A lot is happening at the Mission of Hope property, the biggest project is construction of their new school. The 700-student school was destroyed by the January 2010 earthquake. Excavation for the new foundation was occurring on site as we worked on the units.
At Mission of Hope there are 31 orphans who live at the school site. Soon the kids will move to a new home run by Hands and Feet which is currently under construciton. The children know us well, and were excited to help with setting up and testing the units.
Unit testing and inventory procedures took longer than we had expected, and there was a question as the day ended as to whether or not we should deploy St. Etienne or wait. The Operator, Pastor Hakine, had attended the training seminar Wednesday and remained on site throughout Thursday ever optimistic that we would bring his unit to its site that evening. The team was tired and hot, but simply couldn't say no to him. The unit was hitched to a truck and taken to St. Etienne, about 45 minutes from the Mission of Hope property. Set up went very smoothly and that evening Pastor Hakine slept under the unit. He would continue to do so for several days. Security of the units is the responsibility of the Operator, and immediately steps were taken to secure the materials for a ten foot high iron enclosure. When we looped back to check on the unit construction of it's cage was well underway. I'm certain that it is complete now.
All photos in this entry are credited to Ray Larsen, CSI/IEEE
We spent the past few weeks in Haiti launching Pilot 1 of the IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Project. Six "Sunblazer" solar generators were shipped to Haiti and deployed to St. Etienne, St. Helen, Anse au Veaux, Dieuxieme Plaine, Jeremie and Marmelade. Each solar generator has the capability to re-charge 40 customer home-kits daily, making basic electricity in rural Haiti a reality for 240 homes.
We began the trip with an Operator/Field Tech training seminar in Grand Goave. The training went very well, a lot of questions were asked and answered. Our program is unique by design. By utilizing a franchise model we are able to provide long-term maintenance and repay investors over the long term. The concept was very clear to Operators in training when we were asked, "How long with the equipment last?" The correct answer is, "As long as you pay your lease". This surprised, and pleased, all at the seminar.
There is no capital investment required of Operators to run a franchise, they have only two mandatory requirements: Operators must sign a contract with Sirona the outlines their responsibilities with regard to the equipment and lease payments; and Operators must attend mandatory training sessions.
Unfortunately one group from the first six selected failed to meet these requirements. The Operator sent someone in his stead to sign the contract, and then sent others to attend the training. It is critical that everyone in Haiti, as well as potential US investors, understand that this Pilot is the first step to developing an economically sustainable for-profit Haitian company (Sirona Haiti), it is not the charitable project of a benevolent NGO. The difficult decision was made to take this unit and deploy it in St. Helen near Cayes with another group at the top of our ever-growing waiting list. The community who lost the unit was very disappointed but has requested that they remain on the waiting list for a future unit; the community in St. Helen's excitement about receiving a unit so quickly cannot be overstated.
More than 20 people attended the training seminar, the Operators and Field Technicians as well as others interested in learning more about the project. The seminar was held in Grand Goave, and facilitated by the Sirona represented by myself and Paul Lacourciere, IEEE/CSI members Ray Larsen and John Lorts, Pastor Lexidan Edme and Alain Armand who are managing support of operations and entrepreneurial training in Haiti.
