Solar energy for families in Santo Domingo, Panama

Hello, everyone!

Our Panama Solar project has made some REMARKABLE strides in the past few weeks.

Thanks to funding secured almost exclusively through Global Giving, ESW was able to send a team down to Panama during our spring break. As you may know, we have been working with local leaders and residents of Santo Domingo, Panama, to electrify households in the community. We are happy to say that four houses were successfully wired while we were down there. This means that house electrification in Santo Domingo is complete – the entire community now has light!

With house electrification in Santo Domingo complete, we are now looking to expand our efforts in Panama. We traveled to Santa Librada, Panama, on a diplomatic visit to meet with residents and start building relationships with community leaders. During our visit in Santa Librada, we began a needs-assessment for possible projects that we might be able to assist the community with. During our tenure we compiled several documents about the community, including a complete family tree of the community, information about education systems, past efforts to bring solar devices, and skills the community has. In particular, we are hoping to continue our theme of “education with implementation” that we have done time and time again in the past: we are seeking to help the residents help themselves.

Working with ESW members, we are hoping to develop and distribute a rice huller for these communities, which would significantly help these residents with this arduous task. We are also hoping this device will increase productivity enough to bring these communities out of subsistence farming and allowing them to sell rice as a business: textbook community development!

We are also very fortunate to note that we will be working with Abbott Industries, Inc., of Chicago, IL for the Panama Solar project! Abbott is looking to work with ESW engineers and team members with these projects in providing technical and logistical advice. This means that we need your support even more – an Abbott partnership has the potential to bolster the impact of our projects more than ever!

We cannot thank our past and continued donors enough for your support. Our trip could not have happened without your generosity, and we sincerely appreciate your time with our project. Please stay tuned for more updates!