energy4everyone Foundation is a collaborating partner in the worldwide initiative
The United Nations is shining a light on something many of us in North America take for granted. The energy4everyone Foundation continues to deliver its benefits.
Today in France, the International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies was launched at the Paris headquarters of UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). A global initiative adopted by the United Nations, the International Year of Light (IYL 2015) represents a worldwide campaign to highlight the importance of light and optical technologies – in both promoting sustainable development, and providing solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture, communications, and health.
The energy4everyone Foundation, supported by Enbridge and its employees, works with the North American energy industry and third-party project delivery partners to improve access to affordable, sustainable, and reliable energy in the developing world.
energy4everyone is a collaborating partner in IYL 2015, and is committed to spreading sustainable light-based energy solutions. To date, more than 80,000 people in five developing countries – Peru, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Tanzania, and Ghana – have benefited from energy4everyone’s efforts.
“Sustainable light-based solutions are one of our key initiatives at energy4everyone,” says Chris Meyer, the foundation’s acting executive director. “Our focus is on changing lives through energy solutions, and solar projects are an essential component of the work we do.”
According to International Year of Light organizers, “for over 1.5 billion people around the world, night-time means either darkness or the dim glow of an unhealthy kerosene lamp or candle.”
energy4everyone – now celebrating its fifth anniversary as a registered charity – works to deliver light-based technologies that lift that darkness and improve health and educational opportunities in the process. Light-based technologies also deliver energy for less top-of-mind uses such as refrigeration, cooking, and water pumps.
In Tanzania, an energy4everyone project included the installation of solar panels on the roof of a rural health clinic – allowing staff to refrigerate critical medicine, perform blood testing, and treat patients through the night.
energy4everyone has delivered sustainable lighting solutions in Peru and Costa Rica alongside fellow Canadian non-profit organization Light Up The World (LUTW). With a focus on training local technicians, communities are empowered to move toward a more sustainable future with the practical skills necessary to install, maintain, and repair renewable energy systems.
And energy4everyone has also delivered light-based technologies in Nicaragua, including solar-powered water wells and cook stoves, with Edmonton-based charity Change for Children. These solar cook stoves help improve air quality and reduce the rate of deforestation, while solar-powered pumps at wells allow girls to spend more time at school, rather than collecting and hauling water from distant locations for their families’ needs.
“We applaud the organizers of the International Year of Light initiative for highlighting the importance of light-based technologies in developing countries,” says Meyer. “In addition to our energy delivery projects, we continue to educate people in the developed world about the value of energy – and the important role it plays in overall quality of life.”
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Visit light2015.org to learn more about IYL 2015.
