Only about 30% of the population is connected to the national grid, and blackouts are frequent and long.
When it gets dark at around 6pm, reading or studying can be difficult if not impossible for the island’s children without access to quality lighting.
Utility start-up company RE-VOLT is on a mission to bring electricity to families in rural Haiti. Using an ingenious system consisting of a solar panel, a power storage unit, several lights and a phone charger, it currently serves over 2300 households in La Gonave, one of the most isolated and impoverished communities in Haiti.
Soroptimist Club Val Brabant-Waterloo heard of this very promising system through a member whose nephew is one of the company’s co-founders and decided to support the project. Fund-raising activities included a second-hand jewellery sale and a ‘Soroptimist Cup’ golf tournament with 122 participants, organised with a sister club SI Vannes of France.
Through Greater Good Haiti (Pi Gwo Byen in Creole), an organisation committed to primary school education in La Gonave, five more families have been equipped with Re-volt, and their children will now be able to continue studying after the sun has gone down.