WE CARE Solar

In an amazing gesture of unity, inner city leaders from Detroit and Washington, DC joined with WE CARE Solar team members to assemble solar suitcases for our Haitian relief efforts.

Matthew Marks Evans, executive director of E3 Labs in Detroit, Mark Davis, CEO of WDC Solar, Vander Covington. master electrician of WDC Solar, Jabali Nash of ARCH Developing Corp, and Mitchell Smith of Solar Richmond, learned how to make solar suitcases under the tutelage of Hal Aronson and Mike Strykowski. All of these men had attended a 5-day intensive course to develop training programs for inner city youth and displaced workers in their own cities. A WE CARE Solar presentation inspired the group to work on their own suitcases for the Haitian relief effort. And the story doesn't stop there. These inspiring individuals are hoping to join the WE CARE Solar effort by starting solar suitcase programs in their own cities, engaging the high-risk youth and transitioning workers with whom they work.

As winter approaches and the days become shorter, reliable light becomes even more essential. Jews celebrate the Festival of Lights with the onset of Chanukah, the holiday where we light candles for each of eight days. I was delivering solar suitcases to health care facilities this month, and spent the first days of Hanukah in Nigeria. I was taken under the wing of my Nigerian Muslim friends who were eager to learn about this Jewish tradition. We made an impromptu menorah out of a watermelon, lit candles together, and sang songs.

An organization that has touched our soul - One HEART - has worked tirelessly in Tibet to save the lives of mothers and children. (www.onehearttibet.org) Through a comprehensive program incorporating community education, skilled attendant training, physician training and newborn resuscitation, One HEART has labored to reduce maternal mortality in Tibetan communities where the lifetime risk of dying in childbirth had been 1 in 33. This year, One HEART is bringing their program to the Copper Canyons of Mexico, home to the Tarahumara Indians.

Our most recent solar suitcase "offspring" has a new home in a rural clinic in Rwanda. When we heard that Catapult Design's founder and CEO, Heather Fleming, was involved in a project to bring solar power to several health facilities in Rwanda, we were eager to learn more. We met with Heather and found out that not all of the facilities she was visiting were going to be equipped with solar electric systems. We told Heather about our solar suitcase, and offered to send one of our prototype designs with her on her trip.