http://viewchange.org Videos from ViewChange.org (Filtered by topics: Solar panel) en-us Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:28:00 +0000 Copyright 2011 Link Media, Inc. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-unleashing-innovation What is social innovation? Solving some of the world's most pressing problems -- including global poverty and development -- requires innovative thinking, unusual partnerships, and entrepreneurialism. And it's already working. Find out how in Unleashing Innovation. Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:28:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-unleashing-innovation Social innovation, Technology, Social entrepreneurship, Environment, Water & Sanitation, Change Makers, Foreign Assistance, David Kilcullen, Tanzania, Dar es Salaam >> TITLE: Soccer is the world's most popular sport >> BILL CLINTON: An idea for clean energy that I think it's fair to say hardly anybody else on the planet had ever thought of. >> TITLE: One out of five people live without electricity >> BILL CLINTON: It's quite extraordinary really -- kick a ball, turn on a light. >> TITLE: Thirty minutes of play generates three hours of light >> BILL CLINTON: It's an off-grid solution that gives us a way to bring power and improve quality of life, working capacity, learning capacity. >> TITLE: Soccket: innovate, play, empower >> VOICEOVER: Soccket, and other social innovations, in this ViewChange special. >> VOICEOVER: ViewChange is about people making real progress in tackling the world's toughest issues. Can a story change the world? See for yourself in ViewChange: Unleashing Innovation. >> VOICEOVER: That was Soccket. It's gotten a lot of attention recently, and not just from Bill Clinton. Which isn't surprising: it has all the trappings of a game-changer. Soccket is clever; it's creative; it's relatively cheap; and most of all, it takes on one of the biggest challenges in the developing world -- access to electricity. Soccket is unique, but it's one of a growing number of projects with a similar goal: tackling the world's toughest problems from surprising and inventive new angles. Problems like hunger, disease, clean water, security -- problems that are crying out for a fresh approach. Lynn Taliento from McKinsey & Company's Social Sector Office, and Tom Freston, chairman of the ONE Campaign, are two leaders in this field, which goes by the term "social innovation." It's a field that sits at the nexus of industry, entrepreneurial thinking, and philanthropy. As they explain, understanding social innovation takes some nuance. >> TOM FRESTON [Chairman of the Board, ONE]: Social innovation's sort of a category that wasn't even around ten years ago and has been booming ever since -- and it's really about identifying new ideas, new organizations, new strategies to attack social problems. >> LYNN TALIENTO [Partner, McKinsey & Company]: For me, social innovation is about looking at a social challenge and coming up with different ways to address it. A lot of people think it means coming up with a new technology or a new solution, sort of a point solution. But we see it way broader than that. If you think about it you can come up with a new solution but then you can come up also with a new way to deliver that solution. It might be an old solution that you deliver in a new way. >> TOM FRESTON: It's clearly an area that is growing. We see the White House has a Social Innovation Fund. We see in various countries all kinds of government support. There are all kinds of exciting people doing things. >> LYNN TALIENTO: So, some of the groups that are social innovators are pretty well known to us. Think about (PRODUCT)RED, products you can buy in the stores like the Red Apple iPod. Or think about TOMS Shoes, which many of us wear. Kiva.org, where you can actually make a loan to a micro entrepreneur in another country and get paid back and then reinvest. Or think about Ushahidi, which is revolutionizing crisis communications. >> TOM FRESTON: Ten years ago, if you got out of a good school, there's a good chance you were probably headed to Wall Street. Thirty years ago, if you got out of a good school, there was a good chance you'd want to be an investigative journalist. I think a lot of the bloom is off the rose on the Wall Street, money-making culture, not all of it certainly, but a lot of people are attracted to this realm because it combines their innate desire to do something good along with a possibility to tie it into something innovative in terms of technology, or approach, or so forth. >> LYNN TALIENTO: There's a whole spectrum of social innovation, and it really can be found anywhere. That's really what's so exciting about it. It can be found in labs that are developing new vaccines. It can be found very commonly on the ground in a nonprofit, say a midwifery clinic working with moms to figure out how to deliver their babies more safely. But increasingly it's happening in corporations. Companies are engaging more and more in social issues and figuring out how to use their supply chains, their people, their skills to address a social issue in a location where they're operating. >> VOICEOVER: So where does this "spectrum of innovation" begin and end? From the smallest villages to the world's top tech labs, these innovators are changing the face of their industries. Here are four short films, entered in McKinsey's Social Innovation Video Contest, pushing the boundaries of the expected around the world. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> WOMAN: As I watch my child sleep, I feel a sense of inner peace. I will do everything to protect him, and I want to always be there to give him unconditional love. But the day my child was born, the only thing I wanted was to help him live. >> TITLE: Twenty million low-birth weight and premature babies are born every year around the world, 450 every hour >> VOICEOVER: One of the biggest problems these babies face is staying warm, but traditional incubators cost thousands of dollars. The Embrace infant warmer is a simple solution to this problem. Embrace consists of three parts: a sleeping bag, a heater, and a pouch of phase-change material. Once heated, the phase-change material is placed into a compartment in the sleeping bag. The product stays warm without electricity, and allows for close mother-to-child interaction. Embrace's mission is to give every infant a chance for a healthy life. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> VOICEOVER: You may already know the story. Uganda, plagued by a twenty-five year long war. Two million people displaced, left homeless, jobless, and desperate. But when we actually went to Uganda, our perspective changed. We met women with names and stories. Women who are ready to step forward and get a fresh start. The identity of 31 Bits was born, combining creativity with recycled paper to make incredible jewelry. We realized that we had a market, and they had a skill. Together, we made a business. We believe true economic sustainability is a result of holistic care, enabling a person financially, spiritually, mentally, and physically. After four years in our program, a woman has an education, a career, confidence, and a voice. She is empowered to rise above poverty. >> TITLE: Buy a necklace. Share their story. Give hope. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> MIKE LIN [Founder & CEO, Fenix International Inc.] With over 1.6 billion people without access to power, we need scalable solutions. The name Fenix comes from the mythical bird, and it's about rebirth and renewal. And we're focusing on renewable energy for frontier markets. The Fenix ReadySet system is a renewable power center that can charge from virtually anything. It can charge from solar, it can charge from a bicycle generator that we've developed, and it can even charge off the grid. We aim to reach massive scale, installing megawatts, gigawatts of power, in areas that never had access to energy. An entrepreneur can use the ReadySet system to power a small business, they can charge cell phones and they can power lights at night so they can keep their stores open longer and generate new, meaningful income. We're hoping to actually innovate a new business model where we're thinking about people, prosperity, and the planet. We're hoping to address not just the environmental issues but also improve the quality of life for billions of people around the world. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> TITLE: Meet Kamala. Kamala and her mother spend hours every day collecting water for their family. This leaves little time for school, for play, or for work. One billion people on the planet lack reliable access to safe water. This means they must travel at least half a mile to reach a safe water source. Transporting water is time consuming. Average time spent = 25 percent of a woman's day. Water is heavy. Five gallons = 42 pounds, or one piece of checked luggage. People need at least five gallons of water per day to stay healthy and hydrated. Kamala and her mother struggle to meet their family's daily water needs. Would you rather be the woman on the right, or a woman on the left? Wello is a social venture with a bold mission: to deliver clean water to a thirsty world. Now that they have a Wello WaterWheel, Kamala and her mother spend their time in more productive ways. This gives Kamala and her family a chance at a better future. In a single trip, one WaterWheel delivers enough water for an entire family. By re-imagining the water crisis as an opportunity, Wello has reinvented the wheel. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> VOICEOVER: Those are only four of many stories happening around the world. Meanwhile, governments and aid groups have been targeting challenges like water and electricity access, and children's health, for almost a century. Lots of progress has been made, but there's plenty of room for more. Problems this deeply entrenched require more than just another look. They need a whole new outlook. >> LYNN TALIENTO: If we're going to solve some of these increasingly complex social issues we definitely need fresh thinking. We need unusual suspects if you will. We need people who haven't spent their lives necessarily thinking about social issues but who have talents and capabilities in areas like gaming, or design thinking, or financial engineering to put their talents to work to solve these issues. The essence of social innovation is finding new solutions to old problems. >> VOICEOVER: Consider the case of Mozambique, the site of a severe landmine problem. Leftover from a 16-year civil war, the mines are a national menace. Untold thousands remain hidden. Bart Weetjens, a Belgian engineer, studied traditional demining methods and found them dangerous, expensive, and slow. And that's when he tried enlisting the help of an indigenous ally. This ViewChange film has the story. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> TITLE: Bomb Squad Rats >> VOICEOVER: Here in Mozambique, the Cricetomys gambianus, or, as it's better known, the African giant pouched rat, is no longer feared or reviled. >> ALBERT ZACHARIA: Mostly in our African culture, rats are considered as a useless animal. So, at first when I heard that rats are being used for demining, I didn't believe it. >> VOICEOVER: Here at this rat training camp in Chokwe, near the Limpopo River, these furry heroes are going through their final training. When the rats detect some explosive, they indicate by scratching the ground. The trainers then make a clicking noise to let them know they can return for a reward. >> ANDREW SULLY [Program Manager, Apopo]: What we are trying to do is here the rats are an African solution to an African problem. >> VOICEOVER: Andrew Sully works for Apopo, the Belgian NGO that runs the rat program. He says the inspiration came from scientific work dating back decades. >> ANDREW SULLY: Well, rats have actually been used for the detection of explosives for many, many years. I mean, there were experiments using laboratory rats back in the 1950s if not before that. >> VOICEOVER: Putting that research into practice hasn't been easy, and each rat takes two years to train. But they have some distinct advantages over their canine counterparts. Unlike sniffer dogs, they're loyal to food, rather than one particular trainer. And they can also be more effective on windy days, like today. Demining teams have spent more than a decade trying to clear Mozambique of land mines. Millions of them were laid during the ten-year fight for independence and the two decades of civil war that followed. Today, the rat team is on its way to the former garrison village of Hate-Hate. >> ANDREW SULLY: From the initial surveys that have been done I think there have been at least five or six mine accidents in this sort of horseshoe shape which was the mined area around the barracks. >> VOICEOVER: Alfredo Adamo gave up his job as a schoolteacher to work with the rats, and he's proud of his new career. >> ALFREDO ADAMO: Because I know every time we find a mine and we destroy it, I know if it continued there something bad should happen, either to a person or to an animal, actual cattle or whatever. >> VOICEOVER: The area the de-miners are working in today lies either side of a track leading down to a borehole, the area's main water source. >> VENDELINE SHIRIMA: So they put mines in this area in order to protect those local people inside here. >> VOICEOVER: By the end of today's shift, they've already found two live land mines. The final job of the day is to safely detonate the rat's haul. >> CERVEZA: It's TNT, almost all of it. There's 150 grams. This is the detonator. >> VOICEOVER: It's slow and painstaking work, but bit by bit, Mozambique is being cleared of land mines, and it's all thanks to the work of man's new best friend. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> VOICEOVER: So far, the organization has cleared more than 2,700 explosives in Mozambique's Gaza province. And it plans to make the area completely mine-free this year. Apopo is one of three demining groups in Mozambique today, and they've branched out to Thailand and Tanzania too. This new approach was met with skepticism at first, but the rats have proven themselves worthy allies. The United Nations, many governments, and foundations support the program. And the rats themselves? Like any specialist, they're subject to regular testing. >> VOICEOVER: So who are the social innovators of today? It turns out; they come from some pretty unlikely fields. Professionals in areas like engineering, design, and finance are realizing that they too can make headway on social causes. That's a powerful discovery. Enter design thinking -- usually something that pertains to things like art and architecture. But as Dave Kilcullen and his team at Caerus Associates know, it's a way of engaging social problems, too. Kilcullen has been an advisor to the Bush and Obama administrations, aid groups, and governments around the world, but he is best known for his work in postwar reconstruction. In his bestselling books, Kilcullen shows how social challenges require the same kind of engineering. And the most important part of design thinking for social problems? Understanding the local environment, and the local issues. >> DR. DAVID KILCULLEN [CEO, Caerus Associates]: I founded Caerus with a bunch of like-minded people, with the objective of identifying ways to solve complex problems, things like poverty, urban overstretch, energy shortage, and particularly conflict, understanding how those problems overlap and figuring out simple design-based solutions to resolving them. Design thinking is a way of thinking about problems, and it's a way of bringing in the environment where something's going to be used. And the people that are going to use it, and the system within which it's embedded, and wrapping all of that up into the production of a particular type of thing, an object or a product, or a service. I'll give you an example. Things that are happening in the rural areas around cities lead people to move into urban environments. And the urban environment can't handle the people that are now putting pressure on its infrastructure. And you end up with what we call peri-urban areas, so slums and shantytowns and a variety of different unplanned development happening around the outside of preexisting cities. So you can intervene to make things better by looking at the cluster of urban problems that result from that movement. And what we try to do is look at it as a whole system, and think where we can intervene in concert with local populations together. People talk about making things population-centric, but often we just pay lip service to that. We treat the population like she's a silent movie heroine tied to a railway track, and the bad guys are driving the train down the track. And she's like, "Help me!" You know, and we say, you know, "hang on, we'll rescue you." Our experience is it doesn't really work like that. You actually have to, no kidding, treat the population like they're the principal actor. They are the clients, and you have to work with them as an architect would work with a client to design a solution that really meets their needs. >> VOICEOVER: So what happens when smart design is applied to a tough problem? Look no further than the latrines of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The city is saddled with an overtaxed sewage system and thousands of overflowing pit latrines. But some engineers in Colorado have designed a solution that mitigates the need for central sewers, while also reducing disease. It's a clean answer to a messy question. This ViewChange film explains. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> TITLE: The Gulper, Rockhopper TV, Tanzania >> VOICEOVER: Only ten percent of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's biggest city, is connected to the central sewage system. Eighty percent of the city's population lives in settlements that have sprung up without planning permission. They rely on a huge number of smelly, dirty and unsafe latrines. But a solution is at hand. Meet "The Gulper." These motor tricycles, and the equipment they carry, are transforming the way pit latrines are emptied here. In the past, sewage often ended up contaminating water supplies, particularly during the rainy season. >> ERNEST MAMUYA [Environment Health Officer]: You wouldn't get surprised if you were finding fecal matter rolling with the storm water. It was common. In those areas, we had a problem of widespread cholera and other infections related to the disposal of waste. >> VOICEOVER: The Gulper is designed to reach customers who live down even the narrowest streets. >> JULIUS CHISSENGO: We have gloves, masks, helmets, and gum boots. Then, when we arrive, we assess the toilet for any risks. >> VOICEOVER: Many of the latrines are unsafe because of the old way of emptying them. >> JULIUS CHISSENGO: We used to completely demolish the toilet to drain it. The owners would get upset because it was completely broken. >> VOICEOVER: Julius used to earn his living this way, and saw how dangerous it could be. >> JULIUS CHISSENGO: There was one time when our colleague died because the toilet collapsed in on him and covered him completely. >> VOICEOVER: It's The Gulper's pump that has made life safer and cleaner for Julius. It's not motorized, so it's easy to maintain. It's cheap and, above all, it's effective -- he can clean up to six latrines a day. All the sewage is removed, and very little spills on the ground. >> JULIUS CHISSENGO: We have a container that can hold fifty liters. We usually drain into this, and when it is full, we put it on a motorbike. Then we take it to a place specially designated to pour it all away, and that is that. >> VOICEOVER: There's another way the Gulper has made life sweeter for Julius: he's paid better. Yet customers pay less for the Gulper's services. And it's this affordability that's key to improving health for everyone living in the unplanned settlements. The more sewage that gets dumped centrally, the less risk there is to local people. Cholera is not the only disease in decline. >> ERNEST MAMUYA: The Gulper is getting rid of intestinal diseases: strongoloids, hookworms, tapeworms. There's a reduction of typhoid, amoebic dysentery. If the coverage increases, we are sure of reducing these infections quite a lot. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> VOICEOVER: Mobile sewers, super rats, and electric soccer balls. It's an almost unbelievable spectrum of ingenuity. But all these projects are very real. They're the result of business savvy; of irreverence toward the expected; and of design meeting need. Projects like these are turning aid work on its head, and turning heads in the business world too. That's the promise of social innovation. It's redefining the power of creativity in social causes, and it's blurring of the lines between what's good business, and what's just good. >> VOICEOVER: Want to learn more about innovation, design, or anything else you saw here? Head over to ViewChange.org/TV, where you could watch, read, and get involved in projects that are making a real difference. Watch the films you just saw, and over 400 more from around the world, at ViewChange.org/TV. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/solar-power-lights-up-remote-communities <p>One third of the world's population doesn't have access to electricity. The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) is helping remote rural communities to harness the power of the sun to give them safe, cheap energy to power lighting, medical refrigerators, and modern communications devices.&nbsp;</p> Wed, 20 Oct 2010 20:41:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/solar-power-lights-up-remote-communities Solar Electric Light Fund, Solar energy, Renewable energy, Electricity, Developing country, Technology, Electric light, Solar panel, Non-governmental organization, Alternative energy >> VOICEOVER: It's called energy poverty. One out of three people in the world don't have access to electricity. Most live in rural areas in developing countries and for them it's a blackout every night. As the world's population grows, so does demand for electricity, and the energy gap between the rich and the poor increases. The poor use wood, dung, or kerosene for fuel. Energy poverty means no power to pump water, refrigerate vaccine, or to connect to the global information network. For some in remote areas, hooking up to the grid is an impossible dream. But there are solutions that are making a difference. Solar energy is changing lives and livelihoods in the most unlikely of places. The Solomon Islands are an example. Let's take a look >> VOICEOVER: They live in Sukiki, a small village on the coast of Guadalcanal. >> TITLE: Sukiki, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands >> VOICEOVER: It's part of the Solomon Islands, an island nation in the South Pacific. They have no electricity, but they do have the sun. Without electricity, the people of Sukiki are forced to use kerosene, and kerosene isn't always their friend. >> DR. SILENT TOVOSIA: The lantern was empty and she was going to fill the empty lantern with the kerosene when the whole thing caught fire and exploded, so she got burns to quite a large percentage of her body. >> DR. HERMAN OBERLI [Central Hospital, Honiara, Solomon Islands]: This patient you have seen is typical for an exploding kerosene light. She's burned all over her front. Those patients, they stay in the hospital an average of at least 20 days per patient. They have no alternative. There's no electricity in the village. It's just what is available, these kerosene lamps. Nothing else. If they could have any other kind of lighting all these burns could be prevented. >> VOICEOVER: This is the story of how the people of Sukiki learned to make their own electricity by capturing the light from the sun. That's Bob Freling. Bob is the executive director of a group called the Solar Electric Light Fund, or SELF. After all the equipment is delivered, the staff from SELF works with the villagers to map out a strategy. They trained some of the Sukiki villagers back in Honiara, in a week-long orientation session, and now everyone is learning, so that the village can continue to build and maintain the system after SELF is gone. So they set about making poles and digging holes and cutting down trees so there would be no shade where they put up the poles. And now it's time to turn on the lights. [cheering] Sukiki has electricity, but its essence will not change because of it. Sukiki will hold on to its nature. The people love this land, they are part of it. And now the light from the sun is more a part of them. >> VOICEOVER: Bob Freling has directed SELF projects in more than 15 countries since 1997. He has received many awards for his work, including the 2008 King Hussein leadership award, presented by Queen Noor of Jordan in March 2009. He speaks with Earth Focus correspondent Miles Benson, about how solar power can bridge the energy gap. >> MILES BENSON: Bob Freling, the Solar Electric Light Fund, what exactly are you trying to do in the world? >> ROBERT FRELING [Executive Director, Solar Electric Light Fund]: Well, Miles, the Solar Electric Light Fund is a Washington DC based nonprofit organization whose mission is to bring solar power to rural and remote villages in the developing world >> MILES BENSON: What is life like in a village where there is no lighting. >> ROBERT FRELING: For approximately two billion people in the world, roughly a third or perhaps a fourth of humanity, whatever number you use, it's a very large percentage of humanity, that even in the 21st century does not have access to electricity. And imagine for these people, when the sun goes down, these folks are retreating into homes that are lit dimly, if at all, by candles or kerosene lamps. Their productive day pretty much comes to an end when the sun goes down. >> MILES BENSON: There are health problems that are exacerbated by the absence of electricity. People depend on kerosene, and burning kerosene emits fumes and smoke and that causes problems, doesn't it? >> ROBERT FRELING: It is said that people who live with kerosene lanterns end up smoking the equivalent of two packs of cigarettes a day. It's a couple of million people a year die from respiratory illnesses that are caused by indoor air pollution: open fires, kerosene lanterns. It's a huge health hazard. If you do nothing but replace those with solar electric lighting systems, you will have made a huge contribution to improving the health of rural families and communities in the developing world. >> MILES BENSON: What changes do people experience when they're given light. >> ROBERT FRELING: The moment when families are able to flip a switch and have an electric light come on for the first time in their lives, the first time that happened for me was in western China. I traveled into these remote mountain villages which could only be reached on foot, and we installed these solar home systems and I observed families experience electric light for the first time in their lives. And they were very moved, as I was. Also, I saw them be able to turn on a television set, and access news from around the world for the first time. So their whole world was basically opening up before them. The power can be used to not just provide lighting but also computers, where children can start to gain computer literacy skills at an early age. And, when combined with wireless communication technology, when you bring both computers and the internet to a rural community, then you've really accomplished something meaningful. >> MILES BENSON: You have a project in Bhutan. Let's take a look. >> VOICEOVER: Light is the language of the universe. >> TITLE: Phobjikha Valley, Bhutan >> VOICEOVER: And in the heart of Bhutan, deep in the Himalayas, where the rare black-necked crane flies south from Tibet, the universe is in the midst of a breathtaking conversation. Each winter, the black-necked crane makes its home here in the valley. The people devote art and prayer to this winged messenger that flies on the light from its summer home in the mountains of Tibet. Bob and his organization SELF are here at the invitation of the Royal Society for the Protection of Nature, to try to save the habitat of the black-necked crane, while preserving the path toward modernization for the people of Phobjikha Valley. >> ROBERT FRELING: There are a lot of conservation efforts going on which often overlook how the needs of people that live in and near these ecosystems are so critical to the preservation of these ecosystems, because a lot of people haven't made that connection. >> LAM DORJE [Executive Director, RSPN, Royal Society for the Protection of Nature]: This here for example, Phobjikha, is a very pristine environment, habitat for the endangered black-necked cranes, not ... ecologically very significant, and at the same time we have people with aspirations for development. There are ways by which both can be brought together. Conservation can be a basis for human welfare. >> VOICEOVER: The 500 families who live in Phobjikha still cut down trees to make wood chips to light their homes. Even when supplemented with kerosene and its noxious fumes, the light is so meager that it is difficult for children to do homework, for weavers to weave, for tailors to sew, and for doctors to practice their art. Kerosene must be brought many miles over the mountains, often by hand, and at great expense. To discourage the people of Phobjikha from leaving for the city, and to help preserve the habitat of the black-necked crane, the people of Bhutan ask SELF to bring in a clean, renewable source of energy for the valley. And so into this world steps the Solar Electric Light Fund. >> JEFF DAHL [Project Director, Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF)]: It's been a pleasure just walking into each house and seeing how people are living, and then just seeing the instant transformation from the time you show up at the house to the time you leave. Their house and their lives have been transformed. >> ROBERT FRELING: We also electrified the health clinic in Phobjikha Valley, as well as the education center that is run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Nature. >> MILES BENSON: Two billion is a lot of people to be living without light. SELF can't raise enough money all by itself to solve this problem. Governments are going to have to get more involved, aren't they? >> ROBERT FRELING: Well, most of our projects have been focused at the village level at the household level, and we've typically worked with local NGOs, non-government organizations, to manage the projects. So we will always have a local partner that we work with. And training and capacity building is a very important part of our approach to project design and implementation. But if our models can be adopted by governments and they see that these solutions are actually working and they can be scaled then I think that we will have really accomplished something significant. >> MILES BENSON: Do you see a day coming, perhaps not too far off, when solar power will provide most of our energy needs? >> ROBERT FRELING: Within the next few years it is predicted that solar will achieve what is referred to as "grid parity," where it becomes as cheap to use solar for grid electricity than conventional fossil fuels. It's an opportunity for us now to take the lead in bringing advanced energy technologies to the developing world because at the end of the day creating a world that works for everybody, bringing social justice to the parts of the world that have been so lacking in resources and opportunity, that will go a long way, in my opinion, to making the world safe and secure for everybody. >> MILES BENSON: Bob Freling, thank you very much. >> ROBERT FRELING: My pleasure Miles. >> TITLES: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/burning-in-the-sun <p>When there are chores to be done during the day and it's dark in the evening, children find it difficult to learn. But Malian entrepreneur Daniele Dembele is bringing electricity to remote rural areas, so local schools can light their classrooms long into the night.</p> Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/burning-in-the-sun Solar energy, Africa, West Africa, Mali, Skyheat, Daniele Dembele, Developing country, Alternative energy, Renewable energy, Afriq-Power >> TITLE: Banko Village, Mali >> AMADOU COULIBALY [School Principal]: I have 300 students, and the graduation rate is close to 20 percent. >> JENEBOU [Student]: When we go to school, our parents have no one to help with chores. They pull us out because there's no one to work in the house. >> AMADOU COULIBALY: We are now approaching the exam period. In the nighttime, we give classes. And, with one or two lamps, it is difficult to see the blackboard. >> DANIELE DEMBELE [Owner, Afriq-Power]: Over here in Mali, 80 percent of the villages, they don't have ... they have no light. It's even not 80 percent, it's 99 percent. Here, we're talking about natural selection. The environment you are living in is really tough. So, to survive we've got to be tough. My name is Daniel Dembele. This project is about building some solar panels in Mali, with local material. To make it as cheap as we possibly can. And we can try to make it possible for villagers to buy it. My final purpose would be to have a business in this field. Why should I not make money helping my people also? This we can make in Mali. This also. The back you can assemble, if I teach you how to do it manually. >> RICHARD KOMP [Director, Skyheat Associates]: So, we will make a 30-watt panel out of these. >> DANIELE DEMBELE: First panel made in Mali? >> RICHARD KOMP: These are the very first PV [photovoltaic] modules ever made in West Africa, as far as we know. >> CAROLINA BARRETO-CAJINA [Fulbright Scholar]: Electricity was invented more than a century ago. And, for me, it's just inconceivable to think that there are still places in the world that they are not able to have electricity. I think that it's becoming a right. >> DANIELE DEMBELE: Look over there, what is happening over there. You're going to see the difference. Over there they've got the fire. You can see, there's a kind of light over there. That's the old way to get light. That's the new way. >> JENEBOU: If you're educated, you can do things an uneducated person cannot. If you're educated, you could help develop your village. >> DANIELE DEMBELE: I count on helping thousands of people, not just 10 or 20 villages. If God's willing I live long enough, I would like to make a lot of villages every year, so I'm talking about thousands of people every year. Maybe at the end of my life I could tell you I've been helping over 100,000 people in this country: building wells, building solar power installations, solar cookers, and all the stuff. My main goal is help them and make my life. >> TITLE: Before Banko's school had electricity, every year 20 percent of students passed their national exams. After Daniel installed lights, 97 percent passed. Today, Daniel's business, Afriq-Power, continues to electrify schools and health centers in rural Mali. >> TITLE: From the documentary film "Burning in the Sun" http://www.viewchange.org/videos/floating-schools In Bangladesh, a visionary architect is using solar-powered floating schools to transform the front lines of climate change into a community of learning. Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/floating-schools Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, Bangladesh, Mohammed Rezwan, Monsoon, Flood, Climate change, Solar panel, Education, River, Internet >> MOHAMMED REZWAN [Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha (Self-Reliance)]: In Bangladesh scientists say that, within the next 10 to 20 years, 20 percent of the land will go under seawater. It already started happening in the south. Island are getting smaller and in the north the rivers are getting bigger. We are getting more erosion and more floods. That's why ... you can say it is ground zero for the climate change. >> MOHAMMED REZWAN: Every year, schools are flooded for three to four months, it happens during the monsoon season. We are now in northwest Bangladesh and the school that you can see over there, it is now under the flood water. If the water level increases over the next few days, the students who are still in this class, they will not be able to come to the school. How long was the school flooded last year?>> BOY: Three months>> MOHAMMED REZWAN: What did you do for three months?>> BOY: I was playing.>> MOHAMMED REZWAN: There are many school dropouts in Bangladesh and it is because of regular flooding. During the flood last year, 330 schools were completely destroyed and more than 4,000 schools were damaged. This is the reason I decided, why don't we bring the school to the student? In the northwest Bangladesh there is not enough paved roads to serve these communities. So people have to depend on rivers and boats. Our school boat school is a combination of a school bus and school house at the same time, because it collects students from different riverside areas. Finally docking at a destination, it arranges onboard classes. This is our grade one school boat school, and they are reading off a book on biodiversity. This is one of the books being debuted by our organization. This is completely focused on the river and riverside pollution, biodiversity, conservation -- so what we can do actually to control the pollution, like keeping the latrines away from the water source, use of river water for irrigation, identifying beneficial insects. We have right now 42 boats in operation, the 46th is under ... they are designing it. But within this year we will have around 100 boats in operation. We placed the solar panel on the top and we have a structure to hold the panels. And from the panels it comes to ... here we have all the equipment in this box, the battery chargers, the charge controller, and inverters. And this is the batteries that store the solar energy. In the boat school we have a computer or laptop and hundreds of books. The computers they are getting, every day, information, they are getting access to Internet and they are getting newspapers off the Internet. So they are keeping up-to-date with what is happening in the country and also outside of the country. >> GIRL: Before the boat school we had nowhere to study. >> MOHAMMED REZWAN: What do you hope to be when you grow up?>> GIRL: I want to be be a teacher.>> MOHAMMED REZWAN: In Bangladesh the pressure on the land is always high. At this moment we have 1,209 people per square kilometer. And if the country, 20 percent of the country goes under water, which may happen in the next 10 to 20 years, where will these people go? Because we do not have enough space, enough land. So people will have to live on water in some way. Climate change is a global problem. Not only Bangladesh: the other countries should work together to address the climate change. We have to find solutions. For example our solution to address the climate change, the boat, floating education system, floating housing project which can be adapted in other settings, which can be done on a big scale [so] that many communities around the world can be benefited.