“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
As you can see by the shameless neglect of this blog, life has become incredibly busy since I came back from my Peruvian adventure. I have a few pending blog updates from my last two months in Peru as well as a Dominican getaway that I promise I will finally post in the very near future. But before that, I have a very exciting announcement to make....
Ladies and gentlemen, I am returning to Peru! This time, I will be going to the Andes to install solar panels in a remote village with very limited access to energy. Living in the western world, we hardly stop to think just how essential energy is to our daily lives and how fortunate we are to have such easy access to it. We simply flip a switch to turn on a light so we can read, or heat an oven to cook dinner for our families. Energy, this invisible, empowering entity, provides us with the ability to heat and light our homes and powers our infrastructure. So what about those with limited access to energy? According to the World Energy Outlook, the developing world uses 16,000 kWh/year in contrast to the developing world’s 200 kWh/year, with some areas only having access to 0.14 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy per day. The following information excerpted from energy4everyone’s website (http://www.energy4everyone.com/) helps to put this into perspective:
Running a fan for 1 hour = .01 kWh
Cooking dinner in the oven = 1 kWh
1 minute hot shower = .15 kWh
1 load of laundry (cold water) = .03 kWh
Toasting 2 slices of bread = .06 kWh
Reduced access to energy due to infrastructure constraints and prohibitive costs has sobering consequences on the infant mortality, literacy and life expectancy. The impact on the infant mortality rate is staggering – 100 deaths for every 1000 live births versus 5 deaths in the developed world. The statistics continue in favor of access to energy with a 50% adult literacy rate in the developing world versus 99% in the developed world and a life expectancy of 55 years for those with limited access to energy versus 80 in the energy rich regions.
So what’s a girl to do about it? For years now, I have had my eyes on an organization that goes into developing countries to help find and implement sustainable energy solutions. According to their site, they fight energy poverty in Africa and Latin America by fueling access to energy that's clean, affordable, reliable and sustainable." They have focused on bringing energy to areas with the lowest life expectancy and mortality rates, helping 52,000 people in 5 countries on 3 continents since it was founded in 1999.
My dream came true when I received an email confirming that I had been selected to be one of the nine people chosen to head to the Andes to work on this project. To say I feel blessed is an understatement. I have been gifted with the rare opportunity to give back to the country that gave me such a beautiful and life-changing, experience. I can hardly wait. <3
