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Using funds from the Haiti Recovery Fund, the first distribution of solar kits comprising solar panels, lamps, phone chargers and radio connectors took place on February 18 2010.
The kits reached 3,200 families living without electricity in a tented camp on the campus of the National Adventist University in Port-au-Prince.
Jenna Mulhall-Brereton, Geneva Global’s Program Director for Haiti, coordinated the arrival and distribution of the kits to homeless families through three local aid partners.  
A real and immediate transformation
The night before distribution of the kits Jenna had walked through the camp noticing that only a few people had small kerosene lamps and flashlights, the majority did not, and without light it was impossible to see further than a few feet. The night after distribution she returned and saw people gathered in the light of the lamps and realised that a sense of community was returning.
Jenna commented:
" People pulled us under tarps and through corridors of blankets to show us where they had hung their lamps. Everywhere, we saw people gathered in the light the lamps provided: a mother feeding her children, men chatting on blankets spread on the ground, girls whispering and giggling on a camp bed.
"Seeing the lamps in use, I realized that they had another purpose just as important: The lamps had not created the conviviality, the sense of community I saw in these small gatherings, but they had allowed it to find its truest expression"
The kits will make a practical difference in the lives of people living in the camp, allowing them to communicate via mobile phones, listen to important radio messages and the lamps will provide security at night.
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The kits are made by ToughStuff, which provides inexpensive solar panel kits to low income families in developing countries. |
