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Community Partnership: Bringing light to remote villages
A simple family expressed their delight as their house, like so many others in power-equipped places, was finally illuminated with electric light
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simple family expressed their delight as their house, like so many others in power-equipped places, was finally illuminated with electric light.
'Now I can spend my time studying in the evening,' says a young boy with gleaming eyes, staring at a hanging electric bulb in a modest wooden house.
He then grabbed a book from a worn out-looking table and was drawn into reading in a bulb-illuminated room.
A high-spirited boy eager to study thanks to access to lighting featured in a short documentary film screened by Philips Lighting Indonesia in Makassar recently.
Local villagers in Makassar, South Sulawesi, have warmly welcomed the long-awaited arrival of electricity into their villages, as it enables local children to study in the evening, a mandatory activity for school-aged children.
In past years school-aged children in several remote villages in Makassar could not study well or did not study at all in the evening as their kerosene-fuelled lanterns did not provide sufficient illumination.
'Philips LED-based lighting has enabled rural and remote people to carry out more daily activities. Previously, they mostly conducted activities only in the daylight. Now, they can conduct activities after sunset,' Philips Lighting Indonesia senior vice president and country manager Chandra Vaidyanathan told journalists following a ceremony marking Philips' presentation of lighting-access aid to nine villages in the region.
'This will change their way of life and their daily lives,' he added.
Despite the electricity infrastructure built by state-owned electricity company PLN already in place in Romang Tangaya village in Manggala where the boy lives, the power supply is limited. Many villagers did not have the much-needed access to lighting until Philips came and made their dream come true.
In cooperation with Makassar city administration and Kopernik, a local NGO focusing on eco-friendly technology to empower residents living in remote villages, Philips installed 100 sets of solar-powered indoor lighting in public areas, including mosques, health clinics, schools and village meeting halls in nine remote villages in Makassar.
The indoor lighting system with a solar panel and three LED bulbs has already fully installed in Romang Tangaya with main roads already illuminated by solar energy-based PJU lamps in the evening. The installment of similar systems remains in progress in other remote villages in the region.
Vaidyanathan acknowledged that partnerships were key to sustainable innovations that improve people's lives and 'we are eager to work with various organizations including governments and NGOs to learn what people need and how we can meet these needs.'
Kampung Terang Hemat Energi or Illuminating Villages through Energy Saving and Kota Terang Philips LED or Philips LED Illuminated City are Philips Lighting Indonesia's most recent partnership programs.
Kampung Terang Hemat Energi is the implementation of the 'Innovation That Matters to You' program, 'we worked with representatives of government and ministries, urban planners, academics and various communities in the planning stage.'
'Then when we decided on the targeted area, Philips was working with the government of Makassar as the authority in the region, related agencies and departments, and Kopernik,' he said.
'Our partnerships with different stakeholders are based on the mutual perception and mission that we are here to improve people's lives,' he remarked. (Sudibyo M. Wiradji)
