A recent gift to Texas Baptist Men provided solar panels that not only will supply volunteer builders the power they need to build cottages for Haitian orphans, but also will provide the orphanage an ongoing source of electricity.
Bart Mills (left), representing the board of directors of A Better World Foundation, presents a $130,000 grant to Mickey Lenamon, associate executive director of Texas Baptist Men, to provide solar-generated electricity for an orphanage under construction in Haiti. (PHOTO/Courtesy of A Better World Foundation)A Better World Foundation, a Dallas-based nonprofit humanitarian organization, granted $130,000 for an emergency power unit that contains more than 130 advanced-technology solar panels. Clean Energy Constructors of Arizona, manufacturer of the solar units, made its product available to the foundation for TBM’s use.
The solar unit was developed as a prototype for military use in rugged areas of Iraq and Afghanistan, so it will provide a low-maintenance power source for the orphanage in Haiti, said Terry Henderson, TBM state disaster relief director.
Texas Baptist Men volunteers assemble an emergency power grid that will provide electricity to make possible construction of a home for orphans in Haiti and supply ongoing power for the orphanage. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Texas Baptist Men)TBM volunteers are building 12 cottages for children orphaned by the earthquake that devastated Haiti three years ago—the first phase in a plan to build 35 homes for children and widows, as well as dormitory space for teachers. Progress on the building project has been slow in part due to lack of electricity for power tools—a problem the solar panels should solve.
The January 2010 earthquake resulted in more than 220,000 deaths, and it left 50,000 children orphaned and about 1.5 million people homeless.
Long-term, TBM plans to help Haiti’s recovery by providing leadership and guidance in education, micro-enterprise, agriculture and medicine.
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