Solar Micro-grid in Orungo,Uganda
Donation protected
Columbia University Engineers Without Borders Uganda (CU-EWB Uganda) is beginning a project to bring clean, solar electricity to the rural community of Orungo, Uganda. Community members have long tried to bring electricity to their community, but they do not have the capital or experience necessary to create a sustainable, large-scale solution. We hope to change this, providing them the power they need to change their lives, from lighting their homes so students can study at night to providing refrigeration so a local clinic could store medicines safely.
In May 2017, CU-EWB will go on the first trip of this rural electrification project. Funds from this campaign will go towards the travel costs of our six volunteers (Evan Spotte-Smith, Amit Krishnan, Arvind Srinivasan,
Alan Koolik, and Mary Grace Gana, along with an engineering mentor), as well as measurement equipment and in-country costs such as hotel fees and gasoline. During this trip, our members will be surveying the community, gathering data for us to analyze back at Columbia, and engaging in discussion and planning with community members and local NGOs to design the best possible electricity system for the people of Orungo.
Our project is ambitious. We want to design and construct a system that will power the community as effectively as possible. That means capturing and storing unused power and using a computer-controlled pay-as-you-go model, where community members pay for and receive exactly as much power as they need - no more, no less. The difficulty in executing this model makes this early stage of planning and assessing even more important - we need to have a complete understanding of the community, the materials available, and more before we get to work building the physical infrastructure.
We're just a few months away from our trip, and hundreds of people are relying on our help to serve one of their most basic needs. Please, give what you can and send us to Uganda. Your donation will mean so much not just to all of our team and other volunteers at Columbia, but to many poor farmers in Orungo, as well.
On behalf of our team at CU-EWB, our partners, and the community of Orungo, thank you!
Individuals Traveling on this Trip:
Arvind Srinivasan - Travel Mentor
Evan Spotte-Smith - Trip Lead
Amit Krishnan - Health and Safety Officer
Alan Eliezer Koolik - Education Lead
Mary Grace Gana - Finance Lead
In May 2017, CU-EWB will go on the first trip of this rural electrification project. Funds from this campaign will go towards the travel costs of our six volunteers (Evan Spotte-Smith, Amit Krishnan, Arvind Srinivasan,
Alan Koolik, and Mary Grace Gana, along with an engineering mentor), as well as measurement equipment and in-country costs such as hotel fees and gasoline. During this trip, our members will be surveying the community, gathering data for us to analyze back at Columbia, and engaging in discussion and planning with community members and local NGOs to design the best possible electricity system for the people of Orungo.
Our project is ambitious. We want to design and construct a system that will power the community as effectively as possible. That means capturing and storing unused power and using a computer-controlled pay-as-you-go model, where community members pay for and receive exactly as much power as they need - no more, no less. The difficulty in executing this model makes this early stage of planning and assessing even more important - we need to have a complete understanding of the community, the materials available, and more before we get to work building the physical infrastructure.
We're just a few months away from our trip, and hundreds of people are relying on our help to serve one of their most basic needs. Please, give what you can and send us to Uganda. Your donation will mean so much not just to all of our team and other volunteers at Columbia, but to many poor farmers in Orungo, as well.
On behalf of our team at CU-EWB, our partners, and the community of Orungo, thank you!
Individuals Traveling on this Trip:
Arvind Srinivasan - Travel Mentor
Evan Spotte-Smith - Trip Lead
Amit Krishnan - Health and Safety Officer
Alan Eliezer Koolik - Education Lead
Mary Grace Gana - Finance Lead
Organizer
Evan Spotte-Smith
Organizer
New York, NY