Click HERE to read an article from The Guardian!
> Click HERE for more bright ideas on cheap eco-friendly lighting!
> Click HERE for more bright ideas on cheap eco-friendly lighting!
The
Philippines archipelago has a reputation of being a poor place. Large numbers
of people live in shanty towns. This country - where
40% of the population lives off less than $2 a day - has a very weak economic
activity, is poorly industrialized, and exports practically nothing. The
majority of habitations aren’t equipped with electricity, so the inhabitants
are used to lighting their homes with candles, which is synonymous with the
poverty of the Philippines. So the shanty towns where these people are living
are insanitary, insecure and dark, even during the day. “You never know when you might trip over something, because it’s dark”,
said a young resident of Sitio Maligaya, in the North of the archipelago. We
all know that better lighting would improve living conditions…
It’s to deal with this problem that the Liter of Light project was launched four
years ago. The aim of the foundation which created it, the My Shelter Foundation, a Philippines-based NGO, is to provide light
to a large numbers of habitations which are still living without electricity.
In order to light up the dwellings in shanty towns, the foundation uses a
simple, cheap and effective method. Using a hammer, rivets, metal sheets,
sandpaper and epoxy, all they have to do is fill plastic bottles with a
solution of bleached water, and to install the bottle into holes made in the iron
roofs. During the day, the bottle refracts about 55 Watts of sunlight into the
room where it has been installed. This system only costs 1 dollar, and changed
the lives of a lot of people. “I was
amazed. I never thought a soda bottle could brighten my home”, said another
inhabitant of Sitio Maligaya. These simple “solar bottles” didn’t light only homes,
but it has also brightened up lives, as Eduardo Carillo, a resident of an
impoverished area of Manila, shows: “Before
we had the bottle light, the walkways to our house were so dark and going
inside made it even darker. The children are no longer scared – they are happy
now and they laugh because they can play inside during the day instead of
playing in the streets”.
This project shows that in a place where nobody
can afford to buy manufactured solutions from the developed countries, as the My Shelter Foundation Founder and social
entrepreneur Ilac Diaz explained, they found a way to act, to make the lives of
poor people become better. With basics instruments and objects, they manage to
live in better conditions, in spite of lack of means. On top of that, the Liter of Light project creates jobs. One
man, by providing light, can change his village. This new practice should make
us think about new solar alternatives…
Sources:
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