As electric co-ops celebrate 75 years of providing affordable electricity for rural Americans, another story unfolds globally, echoing the cooperative success story. Volunteer lineworkers from electric co-ops across the nation are spreading rural electrification overseas, sharing light and hope with war-torn or forgotten communities.
“When I told my daughter, Katie, she couldn’t believe some places in the world don’t have electricity,” relates Craig Larkin, a lineman from Troy, Mo.-based Cuivre River Electric Cooperative who spent several weeks lighting up Yei, a city in war-torn Southern Sudan. “If we can help them out, that’s an awesome thing.”
The lineworker efforts are coordinated by NRECA International Programs, a division of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Since the program was established in 1962, over 100 million lives in more than 40 developing nations have been empowered with access to safe and reliable electricity. Funding for this global goodwill effort comes in part from the NRECA International Foundation, a registered charitable organization partnering with electric cooperatives in the United States and others to bring power and economic development to rural villages overseas.
NRECA International Programs doesn’t simply bring American linemen into a country for a few weeks, then pull up stakes. Staff members and volunteers teach locals how to build and maintain simple power grids and run their own utilities.
“The ultimate rewards we see are the long-term benefits,” explains Ixcan, Guatemala volunteer Chris Stephens, manager of engineering for Palmetto, Ga. - based Coweta-Fayette Electric Membership Corporation (EMC). “We’re not only providing a service, we’re providing expertise and best construction practice skills by sharing information and technologies from our linemen to their linemen.
They may not speak the same language, but they speak the same work.”
The initiative also introduces folks to the co-op business model and shows them what electric power can do for schools, health clinics, farms, and local economies. But the job’s far from over. Today, NRECA International Programs projects are under way in Bangladesh, Republic of the Philippines, India, Bolivia, Haiti, Senegal, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Southern Sudan, Yemen, Nigeria, and Guatemala.
Valued Volunteers
For American lineworkers, volunteering overseas provides a crash course in old-school line building techniques. Without access to bucket trucks in most locations, linemen manually climb up and down each utility pole to work on wiring—and that’s once each pole, weighing as much as 2,000 pounds, has been set upright in the ground.
Before that work begins, deep holes for the poles are dug by locals. Then the poles are unloaded by hand and carried to their new homes. Simply lifting , or “piking,” the pole to place it in the hole—something done by utility trucks in the United States—takes a large group of men, all pushing and working together to lift the heavy burden in unison.
“Your hands, your feet, they kind of take a toll,” comments explains Ashley Johnson, a lineman from Horry Electric Cooperative in Conway, S.C., who volunteered in Yei. “But stuff like that goes along with the job. I just try to take it and keep going. For me, I do it for the people. I give them a part of something I have that they don’t.”
Many American volunteers, upon finding local linemen lack even basic climbing gear and tools, leave personal equipment behind when the work’s done.
“It’s a life-changing experience to be part of something like this, giving somebody power who’s never had it before and doesn’t realize what it can do for their life,” notes Bobby Ball, a lineworker from Pahrump, Nev.-based Valley Electric Association who also volunteered in Yei. “It’s an overwhelming feeling of joy, it really is.”
Poles, Lights, Action!
Electricity evolved in America from a luxury to an essential part of American life during the last century. Yet more than 2 billion people around the globe still live without power—64 million in Latin America, 500 million in Africa, and more than 1 billion in Asia.
Of course, folks in distant lands use far less electricity than the 916 kWh consumed each month by the average U.S. household―a pattern similar to how rural Americans responded when the “lights first came on” in the 1930s and ’40s. In September 2009, for example, the typical rural consumer in Bangladesh used 71 kWh of electricity—just enough to power a single 100-W light bulb for a month.
But internationally, every kilowatt counts.
“I volunteered to experience seeing people the first time they get electricity,” says Monroe, Ga.-based Walton EMC Lineman Keith Kirk, who volunteered in Ixcan, Guatemala. “The excitement of running power lines down a road and watching people come out of huts―they couldn’t wait for us to energize the lines so they could hook up. It makes their quality of life a little better.”
According to NRECA International Programs, reliable electricity strengthens communities by providing better educational opportunities and increasing safety. Access to power also paves the way for progress in a community, giving small business the boost needed for success.
“It was a humbling experience, to see people and the way they lived compared to what we have,” recalls Clarkesville, Ga.-based Habersham EMC Lineman Craig Carlan, who also worked in Guatemala. “I felt real good about what we had accomplished. In the village we electrified, kids will have the opportunity to get a better education. They have dreams too, just like we have dreams. Maybe they can set higher goals now.”
Rewarding Results
NRECA International Programs has played a critical role in the electrification of rural Bangladesh, where there are now 70 co-op-like utilities. More than 40 million consumers in 85 percent of the rural villages dotting that South Asian nation boast lights and 1,000 new connections are made every day – bringing a brighter future to thousands more.
“Electrifying farms has had a huge social and economic impact, including a third rice crop annually,” Habib Ullah Majumder, chairman of the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board points out.
The Republic of the Philippines, where rural electric co-ops were first launched 1970, now boasts 119 co-ops. In Bolivia, NRECA and a North Carolina co-op helped start what has become the largest electric co-op in the world. And wherever it goes, NRECA International Programs promotes energy efficiency and renewable energy resources such as solar power, biomass, and micro-hydro.
Helping Hands
Many of the projects undertaken by NRECA International Programs—which is comprised of two distinct entities: NRECA International, Ltd. and the NRECA International Foundation—are funded though the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Other financing partners include the World Bank, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Asian Development Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank.
Local electric cooperatives across the United States have contributed funds, bucket trucks, line construction equipment, and hand tools through the NRECA International Foundation. Many have also sent volunteers overseas to train foreign utility workers, organize co-ops, and build power lines. [OPTIONAL: In YOUR STATE, ## co-ops participate in the Sister Cooperative Partnership Program, establishing a relationship with a specific co-op overseas.]
Some co-ops band together to help communities in a specific nation; Georgia linemen routinely volunteer in Ixcan, Guatemala, and several teams of Missouri linemen have assisted onging work in Yei. [In your state, describe your statewide efforts associated with the program. If you’re not sure how your state has been involved, email Katalina.Mayorga@nreca.coop.]
Despite widespread support, NRECA International Programs needs help to continue bringing electricity to the world, one village at a time. To watch videos of linemen volunteering across the globe or to make a donation supporting the program, visit NRECAFoundation.coop.
