The Solar Life in Sabana Grande

Fresh drinking water, electricity, cooked food and more all through the power of the sun, potentially our greatest and most overlooked source of energy. For thousands of years the ancients glorified this object for its life giving qualities, for they knew that with out the sun there would be no plants or animals and our earth would not sustain life.  Hence they personified the sun into major religious figures and gods to promote its significance.  Finally our admiration of it is coming back around in the form of solar pumps, water distillers, dryers, ovens, cookers and electricity producing panels.  Education and construction of these uncomplicated technologies have the potential to make major impacts on impoverished communities, primarily due to their inexpensive and easy construction methods.

                                         Building a solar cooker with women of the cooperative

Compared to various other impoverished communities that lack the utilization of solar technologies, the community here in Sabana Grande seems to have an optimistic atmosphere about it.  The people seem more welcoming and happier than many than previous communities we visited.  My guess is that it’s because they have a hopeful future for their community due in part to the their growing use of solar technologies and the empowerment this has brought to the women who are building them.

                                                              Solar cooker in action

                           

Although they are living in the second poorest country of the western hemisphere, their lives are enriched by the appropriate technologies provided by a united effort between Groupo Fenix, Mujeres Solares. Groupo Fenix offers technical assistance and teaches members of the local women’s cooperative, Mujeres Solares, and Suni Solar supplies local resources to construct the solar technologies that change the lives of residents of Sabana Grande.  It is an empowering process to learn to construct something that was once thought of as dauntingly complex and overwhelmingly expensive. The residents here have also empowered themselves economically, for they are finding ways to produce new or improved products and services available almost exclusively through such methods.

Once I go home I hope to use the wealth of knowledge provided here, to try and build my own solar panels in order to give off grid electricity to my place of living.

Remy Decoster