Between August and December 2021, the volunteer project Litros de Luz visited six remote Amazonian and riverside communities to bring more than 300 energy solutions, including 36 street lamps and 273 hand lamps, all powered by sunlight.
Currently, around 990 thousand people in the State of Amazonas still live without basic electricity resources. These are communities that depend on solar energy or polluting sources to meet their basic needs, such as information and food refrigeration.
The Litros de Luz Project is sponsored by unicoba, a company specialized in energy solutions in Brazil.
According to Marco Américo, CEO of Unicoba, the project had 25 direct volunteers, coming from six cities: Manaus (AM), Campina Grande (PB), Brasília (DF), Rio de Janeiro (RJ), São Paulo (SP) and Florianópolis (SC), in addition to 300 indirect participants and 16 local ambassadors.
The voluntary action impacted the lives of around 1,3 people in a positive way. Local activities were carried out, including integration courses with residents, painting the solar panels and assembling the solutions presented.
“A representative from each family was designated to produce their own hand lamp, while the street lamps were assembled by groups of residents”, explains Américo.
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In addition, activities such as community lunch, recreation for children, conducting surveys and handing out certificates were also conducted by volunteers.
The teams embarked for the installation sites on December 2nd, worked between 7am and 20pm daily in each community and returned to Manaus a week later, on December 9th.
Marco explains that the project has been in planning since 2019, but actions with communities only took place in August 2021, when project volunteers made technical visits.
“In November, new meetings were held to share information with residents and to carry out training for community leaders, who we call ambassadors”, says the CEO of Unicoba.
“Between the 3rd and 8th of December, the volunteer project entered its final and most important phase, the installation of the equipment”, adds Américo.
In total, there were six communities covered by the project: Monte Sinai, Maravilha, São Tomé, Nova Esperança, Nova Canaã and São Sebastião.
The positive effect of the action could be seen in reports from residents of the regions: “We already had a generator, but it has been broken for more than two years. Now, the new solution works until 21pm and I can do my activities until later, like my crafts", says Rosinete Leite da Silva, resident of the São Tomé community. "I'm very happy because it's the first time I've done a course, and it was great to learn”, celebrates
