Solar Midwives and Families

The Appropriate Technology Collaborative (ATC), and our Mayan Power and Light program in Guatemala, are addressing the critical challenges faced by midwives and families in rural Guatemala. With your help we are providing solar power systems and water filters to cover 300 births per year.  Solar power and clean water will significantly enhance safe childbirth, combat malnutrition, and alleviate poverty in the communities we serve.

Executive Summary:

ATC’s Mayan Power and Light program aims to improve maternal and child health outcomes in rural Guatemala by equipping midwives and families with solar power systems and water filters. By providing reliable electricity and access to clean water, we seek to empower communities and break the cycle of poverty and poor health. The project will have a transformative impact on the lives of midwives, mothers, and children, ensuring safe childbirth, promoting nutrition, and fostering sustainable development.

Background:

In the Western Highlands of Guatemala, over 50% of Mayan children suffer from severe malnutrition. Trapped in a cycle of poverty, these children grow up stunted, their potential height never realized, and their brain development hindered. This heartbreaking reality perpetuates the cycle of generational poverty they are born into. However, there is hope.

By providing small scale solar power and water filters to families the midwives serve, we can offer a lifeline of opportunity. Families, once burdened by the expense of purchasing candles, can now save up to $5.50 per week. This newfound financial relief allows them to provide their children with better nutrition, ultimately improving their health outcomes.

The impact of solar power extends beyond mere financial relief. With the introduction of solar lights, children experience a transformative change in their lives. For the first time, they can study at night, broadening their educational opportunities and unlocking their potential.

The challenge lies in the rural highlands of Guatemala, where our partner Mayan midwives tirelessly serve families in small, unelectrified communities surrounding the town of Comalapa. These families, predominantly working as day laborers on farms, face extreme economic hardship. Shockingly, over half of them earn less than 97 cents per person per day. Coupled with limited access to nutritious food and the prevalence of waterborne parasites, children in these communities experience stunted growth and compromised health.

Yet, we firmly believe that it does not have to be this way. By providing solar power and water filters, we can break the chains of poverty that bind these families. This project holds the potential to bring light, hope, and the opportunity for a brighter future to those who need it most and their communities.  

The Project:

We will be providing our high quality and long lasting 10 watt solar power kits and long life water filters to families who are about to have babies.  This intervention is designed to provide these essential technologies when families need it most - at the beginning of a new life.  Guatemalan babies will grow up in brightly lit households and they will drink clean water.  They will be able to read at night when they start school and they will grow up without parasites that rob them of essential nutrients.  This program is simple.  It allows rural families to improve their lives.  Our data shows that in addition to saving money once spent on candles, families that get solar power earn, on average, an extra $35 per month.  

Links:

• https://apptechdesign.org