Empowering Women to Light Up Guatemala with Solar Power

Empowering women through education and technical training has been a major focus of humanitarian work across the globe. The Appropriate Technology Collaborative (ATC) is raising funds for an important project of this type in Guatemala. As reported by the Journal of Humanitarian Affairs, this project called “Circuits and Solar”, will teach the essentials of solar technology installation to 32 Mayan women in Guatemala.

“We have learned how much difference a little inexpensive light can make for families – allowing productive endeavors like weaving/sewing and reading/homework to be done after dark much less expensively than the cost of kerosene, currently used for this purpose,” tells Craig Harvey, Treasurer at ATC.

The project will not only equip young Mayan women with the technical training to earn money by helping install solar-powered lighting in their area but also help prevent environmental pollution resulting from burning fossil fuel for lighting purpose.

“Burning kerosene indoors results in serious amounts of unhealthy smoke for everyone in the family to breathe,” says Harvey.

According to Harvey, “while there is certainly plenty of sunshine in Guatemala much of the year, this same low-power technology would work just fine in New York and New Jersey for providing a little light and cell phone charging ability for people suffering from power outages.”

Currently, the project is accepting donations via http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/solar-women-of-guatemala-education-and-business/. Harvey tells that if people donate even just $10 during November it will help boost the project’s ranking in the Global Giving “Girl Effect Challenge”, which recognizes the wonderful ripple effects of specifically empowering women, who tend to use earnings more for the betterment of their own family and community.

To learn more about the organization and updates on the project, follow the website http://apptechdesign.org/.