The Project

This project provides light where there is no power network. This is a boon for women to cook and children to do school homework in the remote mountain villages of Guatemala. Historically their light was a wick in a small bottle of kerosene, hanging over the cooking fire on the earthen floor.

Each system consists of a 5-watt solar panel, 2 white LED lights, and a 7-ampere-hour battery. An auto socket to charge a cell phone was added as many villagers still do not read or write and have adopted cell phones for communication with distant friends and family members especially those in the USA. The panels and lights are imported, but the batteries are purchased in Guatemala to save air freight and provide a local source when these batteries need to be replaced every 2-4 years. The panels, on the other hand, can last 25 years, and the LED lights last 25, yes 25 years!

The impetus for the project's business structure comes from John Wimber in his book The Way In is the Way On: "The poor don't just cry out for immediate relief; they want to be integrated into society just like everyone else. The principle is always the same: you give someone a fish, teach him to fish for himself and finally give him a license so he can fish wherever he'd like." Setting up the light project as an ongoing business, and incorporating it in a legal village cooperative enables the villagers to “fish wherever they like.”

These mountain people are poor but hard working, inventive and confident. A successful small village business would provide much needed cash, and preclude some men from leaving their families to work illegally in the United States. These men (currently between 65 and 70 from a village of about 140 homes) need to be away for 2 to 3 years to pay the high cost to be smuggled in (about $5000USD), plus a high rate of interest on the money borrowed in Todos Santos (5% or more per month), and to have extra to bring home. The labor rate in the villages is currently $6 to 7USD per day.

History: The Light the Village project began in 2006 when a group of retired civil engineers from the University of Toronto class of 1952 (5T2), led by Don Turner, decided to back the project of their classmate, Bob Beattie. Bob had been living and working in the western Guatemalan village of Chenuwitz since 1992 as a volunteer, initially with CAUSE Canada. George Burns, a retired engineering business grad of 5T2, joined the team and initiated the idea of donating stock to a charity for some tax benefits, “button-holed” several friends for donations and got the first corporate donation.

The first light project for 25 houses, the second for 40 and the third for 60 have been so successful that the demand has risen dramatically. As Chenuwitz is one of some 20 (of 84) villages in just one municipality without poles and wires, we are reaching out to inform others of this practical, effective way to provide tangible help to subsistence farmers in Guatemala.

Current status: More than half the systems for project #3 were for villages beyond Chenuwitz, where the project started. We are now at project #4 of the Light the Village project in the municipality of Todos Santos (TS), in Guatemala. The response has been so positive, serving a real felt need, that we had to limit the list of new requests to 80 in that municipality until our donations can increase.

Where we’re going: A legal cooperative is being formed in the village to combine the solar light project with the existing village bank. This has been delayed to understand and incorporate the requirements of INACOP (the national institute for cooperatives). The advantages of INACOP are that they will help the community set up the coop and oversee the operation at no cost to the cooperative. The requirement of a licensed accountant helps to assure donors their money is spent as promised. A legal co-op will save us 12% of the CIF (cost, insurance, freight) of importing the small solar panels and LED lights still not available in Guatemala. We expect this to be in place by the fall of this year, 2010, in time for project #4. We are already testing the possibility of selling systems at our cost plus 30%: 15% to sell, 10% profit to the co-op, and 5% contingency, and have allocated 20 units for this.

To tap into potential donors in Guatemala such as commercial farm owners and churches, Fernando (a member of our team) has sold a sample system to Luis Aldana, a coffee farm owner, and another to Pastor Cesar Vasques, involved with many church leaders. We plan to offer solar lighting systems to these groups at our cost plus 10% profit to the cooperative, inviting them to sell the systems to the people at 1/2 their cost.