Mar. 15: Harnessing the Sun

OB-GYN Laura Stachel left her Berkeley, California home to investigate why so many women in Nigeria were dying in hospitals while giving birth. She discovered hospitals there lacked reliable electricity.  “I watched [cesarean sections] where the lights would go out and the doctors literally finished with my own flashlight,” she says.

Stachel turned to her husband, who was familiar with ways to create solar electricity. He designed a simple suitcase containing solar panels that convert sunlight to electricity, which is then stored in a battery that hospitals can use to power operating room lights.  The suitcases are a work in progress, distributed through their nonprofit, We Care Solar.  Cost reduction is being studied to try to reach as many as possible of the estimated 300,000 clinics needing help worldwide. However, 160 clinics have been aided so far with solar suitcases.

Helping others can be a work in progress, but even a small beginning can give others hope.

For You have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress. (Isaiah 25:4)

Lord, help me brighten the lives of others.