Let’s brighten up 2021
04 January 2021
QOS Energy, with the trust and loyalty of its customers, is proud to support the solar electrification project of a health center in Werou, Burkina Faso
The past year has been difficult for all of us. In many ways, our goals, ambitions, and way of living changed for a reason which affected almost everyone at different levels. However, every cloud has a silver lining, and the pandemic came with more than one. It allowed us to reset, rejuvenate, and heal ourselves and our environment. It highlighted the resiliency of the human spirit, and more than anything, the pandemic made us reflect on how even the smallest action could have significant consequences.
Taking these reflections and learnings along with us to the new year, we decided to do our small part by providing support to the installation of solar electrification at a health center in a small village of Burkina Faso, having no access to electricity for as far as 45 kilometers.
Werou – a town with no electricity
According to the World Bank, in 2018, only 4.7% of the population in rural areas of Burkina Faso, including the town of Werou, had access to electricity.
Therefore, Werou’s health center uses battery-powered flashlights for night interventions and bottled gas to keep the refrigerator running. These means of electricity are not only insufficient to ensure proper preservation of vaccines and drugs but, are detrimental to the safety of medical staff and patients.
The health center comprises 4 buildings: a maternity unit, a dispensary, a consultation building, and a pharmacy. The center also provides housing for its staff. Synergie Solaire1 along with Electriciens Sans Frontiers2 has taken the responsibility to rectify the situation by providing solar-powered electricity to the health center.
Support for a better tomorrow
Installation of 16 photovoltaic rooftop panels (4800 Wp), along with LED bulbs, ventilators, inverters, sockets, and solar street lights, will have positive impacts:
- Decrease in the number of diseases, maternal and infant mortality rate, and complications during childbirth
- Increase in number of consultations and facilitation of night-time childbirth
- Improvement of medical care quality
- Reduction in staff turnover rate
- Reduction in operating costs of the health center
- Reduction of electrical waste (no more use of battery-powered lamps)
- Climate preservation by the use of 100% renewable energies
QOS energy, on the behalf of its clients, has joined hands with the two associations by contributing financially to the project, in the hope of sustainable development of the town. QOS Energy has always stood strong for the sustainable development of the environment. Contributing to this cause only reinforces our commitment to promote the use of green energy.
Wish to contribute to the project? Click below!
About the associations:
1 Synergie Solaire, is an organization that financially and technically supports selected NGOs in humanitarian energy access projects globally. It is part of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2015-2030 of the United Nations.
2Electriciens Sans Frontiers (English translation- Electricians Without Borders) is a French international NGO and a registered charity fighting since 1986 against inequalities of access to electricity and water throughout the world.
Photo credits: Electriciens Sans Frontiers, Pieter Bouwer via Unsplash, Pixabay
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