WAMC News
(2010-06-16)
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The prototype relief station made of an old shipping container
"The first thing that popped up in the camps was diesel generators in the camps"
Jody Rael is the founder and chief bottle washer at Sun Dog Solar at Solaqua, a 100 thousand square foot facility outside of Chatham's town center. Rael is describing how Haitians are forced to charge their phones, laptops and any other portable electronic device. For the last 5 years he's been working with Carline Murphy, a Haitian national who transplanted to Columbia County 31 years ago, but now runs the Haitian Community Development Project, she still has family and friends in the camps through out the island, "They don't have electricity,the people who buy the fuel can't let someone charge for nothing".
Murphy explains that the electricity shortage in Haiti is nothing new, in fact the generator market exploded in the 80's and 90's because the national electric company only planned to service about 400 thousand residents in the capital Port au prince, at the time of the earthquake there were over a million people living there, "With so many people living in the country side they over powered the capacity, so they ration it."
The earthquake only exacerbated the issue, making cell phones the only means of communication for many islanders, in the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, a gallon of fuel to charge a phone is expensive, and dirty. So Rael and his team at Sun Dog are creating a mobile relief station, basically a 20 foot box container, wired to the teeth with solar panels, here he stands inside the shell and explains how they'll make it turn on, "We'll find out how much solar we'll put on it,we'll put a work table in back,"
The container will be sent via barge and then truck to a small village outside of the capitol called Merger, where people will be privy to free and clean electricity from this relief station. Additionally, through the efforts of Rael, and Murphy and dozens of local businesses and the schools, they'll also be filling the container with wheelchairs, shoes, clothes, dry foods, tents and a slew of other necessities, they're already thinking about getting a bigger container. They've raised about 10 thousand dollars so far for the transportation, but need some more to finish up equipping the unit, that's according to Sun Dog's marketing director Rebecca Boyd "But we also want to equip it with more solar panels and ovens, we need a few more thousand".
The ovens she mentions are basically foldable boxes that using solar energy, can cook food and boil water, and be transported by hand. In order to bring in the rest, Sun Dog is hosting a benefit concert and silent auction this Saturday at their facility in Chatham. As for the future, Jody Rael says their relationship with the Haitians doesn't stop at this charity mission, "We've been talking about doing solar ovens in Haiti next maybe a project to manufacture solar ovens in Haiti."
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