Lights On! Empower Kamarata with the Sun

TOGETHER WE CAN ACHIEVE GREAT CHANGES!

In a country such as Venezuela, a viable solution such as Lights On! is increasingly necessary.
Recent studies affirm that 47% of the Venezuelan population has no access to electricity and 77% has a very precarious electric service.
We continue working and looking for new alliances that will help us expand our boundaries so that the impact of Lights On! can reach more people, more places, transform more lives.
We know that this project is a great challenge, but we also know that with your support we can achieve it.

Thank you for being part of our team!

 Lights On! keeps shining on the Kamarata Valley

Dear Donor, 

We have almost reached the first half of the year and we are happy to report that the solar panels continue to work perfectly in Kamarata Valley and that thanks to Lights On! project, lights are shining bright both in the rural hospital and local school. 

Also, we are increasingly convinced that energy is a determining factor in the quality of life of a community and that it is essential for its progress. For this reason, we continue working in alliances and looking for new ones that allow us to take  the impact of Lights On! to more unique Venezuelan communities. 

One of them is Birongo, where locals spend most of the day without electricity, one of the reasons why we want to develop Lights On! in Birongo is to provide clean and renewable energy to its Cultural Center. This Cultural Center is currently under cunstruction and it will be the the heart and soul of the Birongo's proud cultural heritage.

Providing energy to this Cultural Cneter will give them the opportunity to promote their local identity through their music, dance, theater and make their culture known through online experiences with travelers from anywhere in the world and thus boost their tourism development. 

If a ray of light was the driving force behind important changes in the Kamarata community, imagine what we can accomplish if Lights On! reaches Birongo and more communities in Venezuela.  

We are counting on you to achieve it! 

New year and new opportunities to shine

Dear Donor, 

2020  was a year filled with challenges, it tested our abilities to adapt, it pushed the boundaries of our imagination to find viable solutions but most importantly it brought opportunities to regroup and generate new and exciting ideas to take Lights On! to new horizons and a brighter future.

In order to create a greater social and economic impact we are working towards linking and mesh together projects that we are developing in various communities of Venezuela.

For example, we are in the process of building a cultural center in the community of Birongo, this cultural center will be a space for exhibitions, performances, education and knowledge transmission, it will be the heart and soul of the local culture. We have teamed up with new project champions and created new alliances that will help us provide this Cultural Center with clean and renewable energy through the Lights On! project.

We are moving forward. Join us!

Dear Donor, 

Despite the complicated situation we are all facing worldwide we haven't stopped dreaming and working towards turning the Lights On! in other isolated communities with huge touristic potential.

We have been brewing ideas that are taking shape, for example, we want to install a solar panel energy system in the rural clinic of Birongo, a culturally rich community of the north of Venezuela.

We recently installed a Satellite Internet connection in Birongo’s rural clinic with the hopes of providing the community a reliable and constant means of communication and hoping  to develop, in the near future, long distance consultations and other health programs.

Birongo suffers from power shortages that can last for hours, so in order to guarantee the constant communication and proper functionning of the satellite connection we are working towards providing clean and reliable energy via a solar energy system.

Do you want to join us? Let's go!

Also we want to share with you that we were nominated as a finalist in the GlobalGiving 2020 Photo Contest, we are honoured and grateful for this recognition and we like to thank each and everyone of you who supported our project by voting for us.

Thank you everyone.

Dear Donor,

Despite all the difficulties we have encountered along the way, and there were plenty, we are so happy to share with you that the lights are shining bright in Kamarata.

As you can recall from the last reports, we have faced delays in each phase of the project due to various contingencies linked mainly to gasoline shortages, shipment and nationalization of technical equipment, and difficulties with suppliers to meet demands. 

We battled vigorously through each and every one of those difficulties and from february the 12th to the 20th of 2020 we installed solar panels system that will generate clean and renewable energy for the community of Kamarata, more specifically, the Rural Hospital of Kamarata and the High School U.E. Fray Víctor Carvajal (the only one with a computer lab in the whole community). 

It has been quite a journey, with ups and downs that required team work and adaptation, at first we hoped to provide clean and renewable energy to four different buildings in the community but due to the constant flux of difficulties, mainly the ravaging economic inflation of the country, we had to resize and rethink the project. 

Nevertheless, we are pleased to share with you some of the main results and impact of the project: 

• Electrical capacity generated: In total, 4,800 Wp of electrical energy is generated.
• Each structure, High School and Rural Hospital, has an independent micro-grid of solar panels, each generates 2.400 Wp. Before installation each structure produced a current power of 1.200 Wp
• Annual energy demand: Now is possible to cover the full annual demand of the two buildings, which is 4,325 kWh: Rural hospital: annual demand of  2303 kWh. High School: annual demand of 2022 kWh.
• Tons of Carbon Offset: Rural Hospital: 39,5 tons per year. High School: 15 tons per year.
•  Number of direct beneficiaries: One thousand eighty-one (1081) people. Four (4) persons providing lodging and food services. One (1) person in charge of transfers. Seventy-nine (79) people trained. One hundred and seven (107) students. Eight hundred and ninety (890) inhabitants of the central sector.
• Number of indirect beneficiaries: The whole Kamarata community with a population of approximately four thousand (4,000) people.
• Number of beneficiaries trained: Seventy-nine (79) persons.
• Eight (8) locals took advanced training because they will be in charge of the care and maintenance of the technical equipment of the micro-grid of solar panels. 
• Seventy-one (71) people including children, young people and adults, trained in clean and renewable energy, solar energy systems.
• Additional electrical service hours:  Sixteen (16) additional electric service hours.
• The Micro-Grid System of Solar Panels allows the community to guarantee the continuous use of electricity in the Highs-School and Rural Hospital facilities. Now both structures have electricity for 24 hours. Even when there is no sunlight, the System guarantees 48 continuous hours of electricity by the batteries back-up system.
• The microgrids installed in the solar energy system have quality equipments that are among the Top 10 in the world. According the Otepi’s technical team, it is the only facility in Venezuela that counts with this technology and standards.
•  The Rural Hospital is the only one in the area serving  890 people from the Kamarata centre and 2800 people from the entire sector. Its operation makes it possible to guarantee health service to the community.
• The High-School, with 107 students, incorporated academic activities in the evening and night schedule for new community activities. The computer lab, which had been out of operation for more than two years, now is working again.

Of course there is still so much work to do (and we are on it), but now we can say that we achieved the project’s main goal: To better prepare the community to receive Tourists and improve their quality of life in a Sustainable and Clean kind of way.

Our dream is to provide more schools and homes with clean and renewable energy for the Kamarata community. 

Thank you for being part of this journey, without you any of this would have not been possible. We will let you know as soon as we start working on the next phases. 

Is an honor to have you as part of this changemakers team!