Mayan Power and Light

Last month, ATC and our solar team installed 160Watts of solar power on the community building at Finca la Florida, a sustainable agricultural community near Colomba, Quetzaltenango.

This community of 40 poor farming families advocated for their rights to land by taking over an abandoned coffee plantation. Over the last 10 years, they have created an incredible food security system by diversifying their agriculture to produce food year round.  Miles from the nearest town, the community has no electricity and is dependent on candles and kerosene to see. 

Funded by a Canadian Interact club, the solar installation included a community Circuits and Solar workshop and engaged community members and our young Interact volunteers to install the solar system together. 

Over 336 community members now have access to charge batteries, phones, and lanterns.

Their meeting hall now has lights at night and energy for community movie screenings.

7 rural girls and 10 rural boys learned about electricity, circuits and solar power theory and practical skills. They applied their learning theory to their own 10-watt solar system and then installed the community system together. 

Another stellar example of sustainable community development through skills training and appropriate infrastructure!

Help our programs stabilize and grow! 

Committing to a monthly donation keeps our solar education program going. Fatima and 6 other solar saleswomen are almost ready to run their own workshops. Help us get them there! 

That's right!  

Sustainia 100 has chosen Mayan Power and Light over 1,500 projects and technologies to promote our innovative program to investors, business leaders, politicians, and consumers!  

                               THANKS TO YOU, GlobalGiving Donors!

We couldn't have come this far without our amazing individual donors chipping in to get our brand new solution off the ground.  

It was risky, it was hard, we faced challenges, we found solutions. As a team of go-getters and problem solvers, the MPL team in the US and Guatemala had to give it everything we had to get this ball rolling.

This is no exageration. You made it possible for us to create this award winning program to strengthen local economies sustainably, and with equal access for women.

• Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Circuits and Solar training for 175 Guatemalan women, with specific information about environmentally sustainable appropriate technologies.

• Kick-starting 13 small businesses in rural Guatemala since 2015.  These women entrepreneurs now serve 10,000 people, selling solar panels, clean cook stoves, and other appropriate technology at prices that are affordable for rural agricultural workers.

• Incubating Soluciones Energeticas Apropiadas (SEA), a self-sustaining small business with six employees, providing small-scale solar panels and large solar power systems in rural Guatemalan villages.

• Providing clean cook stoves to families in rural Guatemala.  These concrete-cast stoves burn less fuel, with significantly less indoor air pollution, than conventional models, saving money for low-income families and improving their health at the same time.

Your continued support keeps Mayan Power and Light growing.  Sign up as a Monthly Donor to keep our training program running on schedule. 

About the Sustainia 100

These 100 pioneering projects, initiatives, and technologies at the forefront of sustainable innovation have been selected from more than 1,500 candidates. By identifying leading solutions in ten key sectors, Sustainia100 gives investors, business leaders, politicians, and consumers detailed insights into the projects and technologies within their field of interest.

The solutions in the Sustainia100 are readily available, have the potential to scale up across markets, and impact society on the triple bottom line of sustainability: environmental, social, and economic. This year, solutions that are making a contribution to climate resilience or mitigation are also highlighted for their climate benefit. 

Sustainia has adopted a systematic approach to finding solutions in concert with a global sustainability community. Entrepreneurs from 74 countries submitted their projects to Sustainia’s call for solutions. These submissions are supplemented by extensive research carried out to ensure geographic and sector diversity.

Finally, the solutions are carefully vetted and selected using five evaluation criteria, (Readily Available, Scalable, Positive Environmental Impact, Financially Viable, Improve Quality of Life), in consultation with the Sustainia100 Advisory Board, consisting of 25 sector experts from 18 global research organizations.

The Sustainia Jury:

Acumen Fund,

Blood Orange Consulting,

Climate-KIC,

Copenhagen Institute on Risk and Sustainability,

Cornell University,

Ellen MacArthur Foundation,

EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung

Federal University of Paraná,

United Nations World Food Programme,

University of California, Berkeley,

World Resources Institute,

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF),

Yale University

Natural Resources Defense Council,

Nordic Fashion Association

Links:

• Sustainia 100