In the last month, we’ve sent solar suitcases to three continents! Villanova Students from Philadelphia brought a suitcase to a health promotor in Nicaragua in May. Next, WE CARE Solar volunteer Irene Abagi brought a solar suitcase to a hospital in Kenya. And, the same week we sent three solar suitcases with photographer Gloria Upchurch to Tanzania. The photo shows Gloria introducing the suitcase to Bashay primary school. We also equipped Adam Thompson from ehealth Nigeria with an expanded solar suitcase. He’ll be using our suitcase to power electronic medical record systems in Nigeria.
We’ve heard terrific updates about our portable suitcase in Burma, which is helping midwives to do births near the Burma-Thai border. They’ve requested four more. We also learned that two of our solar suitcases are bringing light to health workers in Tibet! Meanwhile our house continues to fill up with suitcases, thanks to the tireless efforts of Hal Aronson (co-founder) and other volunteers including Rob Teigen and Mike Strykowski. We will be sending four to Uganda in the next few weeks…as soon as we return from teaching educators at Solar Energy International in Colorado!
In Nigeria and Zimbabwe, PHCs Leverage Renewable Energy to Improve Maternal Healthcare
During Dr Laura Stachel’s postgraduate research on maternal mortality at Gambo Sawaba General Hospital (GSGH) in Kofan Gayan, Kaduna State, in 2008, she noticed a connection between the lack of energy supply and high maternal mortality at the health centre.