June ‘10 Newsletter

First Project To Be Installed in August

The

GlobalLight Projects team is pleased to announce that later this summer, the first phase of the installation of solar energy in the school in Chona, Zambia will occur. One and a half years ago, GlobalLight Projects was formed with the vision of using simple technologies to assist people in the developing world. The site of the initial project was then determined to be in Chona, the rural village where Thomas, one of the GlobalLIght Projects team was raised. The population of the Chona area is about 12,000, located several kilometres off the electrical grid. Life there remains mostly as it was in the time of Thomas’ grandfather - no running water, no modern facilities, children unable to compete in national exams - because there is no electricity.

The choice of Chona had a couple of advantages. One is that the area and people are known to Thomas. Another is that a local Zambian development agency is active in the area, and in fact, recently re-built the school (but did not add electricity). GlobalLight Projects has forged a relationship with this agency and they are assisting us with some logistical issues. While we have been working toward this project, discussions have been held with several other potential partners for solar installations elsewhere. A lot of work has been taking place behind the scenes.

Fundraising has been on-going since our earliest days. Many people have contributed and we appreciate all those who provided the early encouragement that we could do this. For the past year, we have been working on a funding proposal with a partner that would provide the bulk of the funds for the project. This has taken longer than expected but we are optimistic. While we continue work on this proposal, we have decided to use the funds already raised to electrify part of the school.

The budget for the complete installation is $35,000. This summer we intend to install solar collectors and related equipment on one classroom for a cost of $10,000. This installation will form the basis of what will follow and will be integrated into the rest of the project. The GlobalLight Projects team has decided to do this in order to be fair to those who gave the first funds toward the project and to gain experience and lay the groundwork for the larger installation to come.

Thomas will fly to Zambia on August 19 for 3 weeks in order to complete the first phase. Funds on hand will be used, but we do need about $3000 more. We are letting our friends know of the exciting development of our first project and to provide an opportunity to be part of it. If you would like to help us provide electricity for the first time in a rural African village, please use the enclosed envelope to return your cheque (made out to Royal View Church - designated to GlobalLIght Projects. or use your credit card from our website, www.globallightprojects.org. All gifts are tax deductible.

There are so many worthy causes. Just now, with the G8 and G20 meetings, the world is focused on global challenges. It is so easy to overlook those who are left behind. We have challenges but they have poverty and early death. Some  well- meaning folks are protesting the meetings, but we choose to change the world. Chona will never be the same again, not because of a billion dollar meeting but because a few friends and supporters decided to do what they could.

Thank you for your help and encouragement to get us this far.

To donate onlne, please visit our CanadaHelps Giving Page.

If you have  a question or comment contact us.

Your GlobalLIght Projects Team
Thomas, Wayde, Peter, Marilyn & Doug

May 2010 Newsletter

The GlobalLight Projects Team has been working on our vision to utilize simple technology to help people in the developing world.  
 
In recent weeks, we have participated in the Zambia Radio Blog - a live audio webcast to Zambians living throughout the world. The producers had taken note of what we doing and wanted to know more. The listening audience is about 15,000 and the programs are archived on the Internet for later listening. This program complemented The Times of Zambia article profiling GlobalLight Projects and other initiatives by Zambian expatriates to help develop the country (the article is available on our blog).

We also assisted a Canadian journalist who had a fellowship to study development issues in Africa by passing along some of the things we have learned and introducing him to contacts both in Canada, Uganda and Zambia that could contribute to his research. Our latest presentation was to the Rotary Club in Woodstock, ON (Thomas is pictured above). Solar powered batteries lighting the room for lunch sets the stage for an interesting talk!

The Story of Stuff

Ever wonder about how you can buy stuff so cheaply - stuff that was made in China, for example, with materials produced elsewhere and then shipped here? I know that we like to complain about high prices, but think of the things you purchase now for less, in real terms, i.e. adjusted for inflation. The Story of Stuff is a 20 minute cartoon, produced and narrated by Annie Leonard and it shows the hidden costs of what we consume. Perhaps the most shocking fact is that if the whole world consumed like we in the West do, we'd need 5 earths to provide the resources. But, we only have one. So, get ready, whether you like it or not, a future of conservation and more modest living is coming. Either that, or there will be war to grab the resources first. Orwell's vision in 1984. Iraq, anyone? The disturbing fact is that other people are subsidizing our comfortable lifestyle. It's time to give something back.



 Check out The Story of Stuff website

Buy less crap.

        -Annie Leonard

Contact Us!

Don't hesitate to contact the GlobalLight Projects Team with your questions, comments, suggestions or to help arrange a demonstration of solar power and to talk about our vision and concept. Also, feel free to pass this newsletter on to someone who might be interested.

Your GlobalLight Projects Team
Marilyn, Wayde, Peter, Thomas & Doug

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Let There Be Light!

March 2010 Newsletter

Last month we introduced the book The Bottom Billion, which describes the plight of some one billion people in about 50 countries who are not only poor but getting poorer. The reasons for this are complex but the result is people, especially children, suffer and die needlessly. It is so easy to ignore this reality, closeted away in our North American cocoon, where our leaders try to lull us into voting for them with idiotic ideas that we can go on endlessly consuming without thought for the future. In the final chapter entitled, "An Agenda for Action," the author, Paul Collier addresses the thought that the issues are too big to tackle:

I have a little boy who is six. I do not want him to grow up in a world with a vast running sore - a billion people stuck in desperate conditions alongside unprecedented prosperity ...

Certainly there are brave people within these societies who are struggling to achieve change. It is important to us that these people win their struggle, but the odds are stacked  against them ...

You are a citizen and citizenship carries responsibilities. In the 1930s the world sleepwalked into the avoidable catastrophe of World War II because electorates in the United States and Europe were too lazy to think beyond the populist recipes of isolationism and pacifism. These mistakes led to the slaughter of children. It is the responsibility of all citizens to prevent us from sleepwalking into another catastrophe that our children would have to face.

We must prod our national government, we must change the way we live, we must spend part of our prosperity to help those who cannot help themselves. We must do it now and it must be more than a passing response to a natural disaster. We must stop the running sore.

School Presentations 

In recent weeks, the GlobalLight Projects team had the privilege of making presentations in two London schools. We have developed interactive, fun tools that help us get the point across about what we are doing and why. We are hoping that eventually a school here will take up the challenge of helping to provide electricity for a school that needs it. 

Video, quiz questions, carrying 20 litres of water (as children do in many parts of the world), and a working solar energy display help us get the points across to young and old alike. Thanks to London District Christian Secondary School and John Paul II High School for inviting us.

Above
Peter, Thomas & teacher at LDCSS




Left
Peter, Thomas with JPII chaplain

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.
- Samuel Johnson

Contact Us!

Don't hesitate to contact the GlobalLight Projects Team with your questions, comments, suggestions or to help arrange a demonstration of solar power and to talk about our vision and concept. Also, feel free to pass this newsletter on to someone who might be interested.

Your GlobalLight Projects Team
Marilyn, Wayde, Peter, Thomas & Doug

Contact the GlobalLight Projects Team

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Let There Be Light!

February 2010 Newsletter

Recently, the GlobalLight Projects team has been discussing Paul Collier's book, The Bottom Billion. A professor of economics at Oxford University and former World Bank official, Collier argues that the world's people can be seen as three groups - one billion rich people (that's us), four billion who are making progress in economic development (China, India, etc) and one billion people who are falling further behind (most of Africa). From The Washington Post review:

The Third World has shrunk, but it hasn't vanished. The new third world -- the hard core of the development challenge that Zoellick [head of the World Bank] faces -- is composed of about 50 countries that are home to a billion people. Globalization is propelling China and India toward wealth, and both are closing in on the prosperous with unprecedented speed.

But globalization is not working for the bottom billion. Their incomes have been virtually stagnant. From 1960 to 2000, the new third world experienced no growth at all. Meanwhile, the economies of the rest of the developing world have enjoyed accelerating growth, decade by decade. First gradually, then rapidly, the bottom billion have fallen away from the rest of mankind. Encouragingly, Zoellick has picked up on this. "Globalization must not leave the bottom billion behind," he told the National Press Club on Oct. 10. But it already has.

Collier identifies what he calls five traps that keep the bottom billion behind: conflict, natural resources (too many rather than too few), landlocked with bad neighbours, and bad governance in a small country. He supports his arguments with economic data but in a very readable form.

An example of the problem is shown in a comparison of the educational opportunities between Canada and Zambia.

Although Canada has over 3 times the population of Zambia, the two countries have approximately the same number of primary school students. But what happens to those students is startling. Some children in Zambia get little or no primary education. Only a fraction of those progress to secondary school and again a fraction make it to post-secondary education. While Canada has 1.4 million students in colleges and universities, Zambia has 24,000. These kinds of statistics are more or less true for all of the bottom billion.

The book is both sad and hopeful. There are solutions. Besides the moral cost of leaving one sixth of the people of the world doomed to misery and early death, Collier also notes the economic cost to the world of having so many marginalized people with very little to lose. GlobalLight Projects is focusing on providing schools with electricity in order to attract good teachers and provide rural students with modern tools of learning. This is not the only solution to the problems of the bottom billion, but surely developing the human potential of the people is key to changing the future for the better. As Collier notes, change for these societies must come from within rather than imposed from outside.

You can read Collier's blog here and the book is available at Amazon.ca, You can help GlobalLight Projects with your financial donation here.

I'm in a great rage now, as I understand how many lives we have lost.
~Stephen Lewis

Contact Us!

Don't hesitate to contact the GlobalLight Projects Team with your questions, comments, suggestions or to help arrange a demonstration of solar power and to talk about our vision and concept. Also, feel free to pass this newsletter on to someone who might be interested.

Your GlobalLight Projects Team
Marilyn, Wayde, Peter, Thomas & Doug

Contact the GlobalLight Projects Team

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Let There Be Light!

Merry Christmas

December Newsletter

It's been a year! On December 1, 2008, the GlobalLight Projects team first met together to begin planning to do our part to improve the world. Thomas had the vision and understanding of how simple technology, especially green energy sources (solar and wind) can bring parts of the developing world into the 21st century. He put action to his deeds and studied to become a photo-voltaic technician. Currently he is expanding that expertise with broader studies of alternative energy.

Thomas also knew he wanted a team of people to work with him, and that is where the rest of us come in. We all have complementary skills and actually, really enjoy just being together. We established a vision and developed a strategy to implement that vision. We chose an initial project - solar energy for the school in Chona, Zambia. We developed several communication and fund-raising tools and presented our vision and project several times. We established a working relationship with a development foundation in Zambia and have been featured in a Times of Zambia article. We have raised several thousand dollars toward our project and are hard at work to raise the rest.

Of course, we are looking forward to the next year and the hopes that we will install our first project. We especially appreciate those who joined us from the beginning, encouraging us that we were doing something worthwhile. As with any endeavour, it is the people you meet that are most important, and we have been blessed with the help of old friends and the acquaintance of many new friends. Thanks to all of you!

Another Presentation

In November, the GlobalLight Projects team was privileged to present our project to Mary Immaculate Church in London, ON.

Thomas presenting

Marilyn working the computer

Peter & Thomas receiving donation

Merry Christmas

We trust you have a blessed Christmas. Of course, Christmas is the season of giving. In searching for the perfect gift, consider making a donation to a favourite charity in honour of someone you care about. Your gift of $25, $50 or $100 towards our solar project in Zambia will help a whole community and last for years. You can conveniently give online in just seconds. Thanks!


Contact Us!

Don't hesitate to contact the GlobalLight Projects Team with your questions, comments, suggestions or to help arrange a demonstration of solar power and to talk about our vision and concept. Also, feel free to pass this newsletter on to someone who might be interested.

Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings,
all the snow in Alaska won't make it 'white'."

~ Bing Crosby

Your GlobalLight Projects Team
Marilyn, Wayde, Peter, Thomas & Doug

Contact the GlobalLight Projects Team

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Let There Be Light!

November '09 Newsletter

Remember

This month is the time to specifically remember those who fought and died for our country. Certainly, they should never be forgotten. But, it seems that our culture has collective amnesia - forgetting so many lessons of the past. This past year's economic recession reminded us of previous periods of hardship and sometimes prompted the comment that maybe we will act differently in the future. But, no. We're pretty much back to focusing on our immediate prosperity and comfort.

Recently, news shows have featured an "expert" talking about the likelihood of people being able to live indefinitely within the next 20 years. Someone has said that the first person to live 1000 years is probably already alive. This supposedly will occur because of genetic and technological breakthroughs, where little nano-bots will run around inside us, fixing what ails us. Nice idea - for the lucky few of us who live in the developed world. What about those who live now where a child dies every 6 seconds from hunger. Where a baby born today will not expect to see her 40th birthday. Where children do not attend school because they must carry water and gather firewood. It seems it is convenient to forget them.

Presentation


The GlobalLight Projects team is grateful to Trinity Lutheran Church, London, ON and FaithLife Financial for their generous support. Together, they offered to match funds we raised, up to $500. Happily, we exceeded that goal during the specified period and recently, Heather Ellis on behalf of Trinity Lutheran Church presented their cheque to Thomas and Peter.

We would be delighted if you or your group also found a creative way or two to help make a difference for a whole village in Zambia. Contact us with your ideas, suggestions or questions.

Zambian-Canadian Dinner

In October, GlobalLight Projects was honoured to accept an invitation to the annual Independence Day dinner of the Zambian-Canadian Foundation. The theme of the evening was "Giving Back to the Motherland." Representatives of several organizations presented what they were attempting to achieve for the betterment of Zambia and its people. Although GlobalLight Projects has a global mandate, Thomas and his wife, Albina were born in Zambia and the first GlobalLight Projects installation will be in southern Zambia.

GlobalLight Projects was well received by those in attendance, and we made many new friends. It is inspiring to see what Canadians can do for others.

'Tis the Season

Still looking for the perfect gift? How about a gift to the children in Chona, Zambia? Unlike some, we don't have a catalogue where you can buy a goat or some chickens. But your donation of $25, $50 or $100 will purchase a needed part of the solar installation to light up a school and give the whole community a new resource. If you would like to make your donation in memory or in honour of someone, let us know and we will send an appropriate card. Don't get stressed out in a mall. Get the perfect gift right here!

Contact Us!

Don't hesitate to contact the GlobalLight Projects Team with your questions, comments, suggestions or to help arrange a demonstration of solar power and to talk about our vision and concept. Also, feel free to pass this newsletter on to someone who might be interested.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
~ Mahatma Gandhi

Your GlobalLight Projects Team

Marilyn, Wayde, Peter, Thomas & Doug

Let There Be Light!