Powering Health

Improving Health with Solar Clinics in Solomon Islands

The geographic isolation of the Temotu province, located some 350 kilometers far east of the Solomon, makes provisions for energy services very challenging for 22,000 people, mostly subsistence farmers. Diesel and kerosene are the principal energy sources, but shipments can be erratic, and supplies frequently run out, bringing generators, lamps, and other equipment to a halt which adversely affects Temotu’s health clinics, among others. The most acute problems caused by undependable energy supplies are at Temotu's health clinics including disruption in surgical procedures due, preservation of vaccines in the refrigerators, and consultations by radio with the only doctor in the province.

SELF (Solar Electric Light Fund) brings solar power to about a dozen rural health clinics throughout the province which provide energy for florescent lighting, vaccine refrigerators, two-way radio communication and other critical medical devices such as microscopes, oxygen concentrators and dental equipment.

The Ihangane Project: Solar Powered Health Clinics in Rwanda

Seven health clinics in Rwanda’s Ruli District serve the needs of 120,000 community members. These clinics provide both in-patient and out-patient care for people who cannot make the 2-3 hour walk to the main hospital. Two of the seven clinics are connected to the grid; three have some electricity via solar panels; two have no electricity. The clinics provide HIV medication to thousands of patients, but each clinic needs some access to electricity in order to distribute that medication. The Ihangane Project is coordinating the effort to refurbish the solar panel installation of three clinics and outfit the two remaining clinics with a new panel installation that will provide for their present and future power needs.

Solar Power for Medical Clinic on the Burma/Thailand Border

The project enabled the procurement of solar power systems and provides training for staff in 35 remote jungle clinics and two larger hospitals, serving 175,000 people, including many internally displaced ethnic minorities. The clinics are scattered over 600 miles of eastern Burma, a noted conflict zone. Solar systems must be frequently disassembled and moved on short notice, and equipment must be carried over the border from Thailand in backpacks.

The Village Empowerment Project at the Center for Sustainable Energy at the UMASS Lowell

Involves the development of low cost, reliable systems appropriate for use in developing countries and which are sustainable in terms of energy, environmental impact, and economics. Both graduate and undergraduate students develop such systems as parts of service-learning projects in courses and graduate degree theses. The Center has organized two-week trips twice as year since August of 1998. In this effort the “Village Empowerment Project” engages in the design and installation of solar/hydro/biogas systems for vaccine refrigeration, transceiver radio communication, lighting, laptop PCs, water purification, and agriculture for remote medical clinics, schools and towns in Peru and develops infrastructures for local people to take over development and maintenance of such systems.

In Memoriam: Walt Ratterman

Walt Ratterman, chief executive officer and co-founder of Sun Energy Power International (SunEPI), who selflessly worked to improve the quality of life of those most in need, was a victim of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti.

AfriAfya: Communication Strategies

Established in April 2000, AfriAfya (African Network for Health Knowledge Management and Communication) is a network of non-governmental organisations working to explore how to harness information and communication technologies (ICTs) for community health in Kenya. The network works to improve the health and development status of communities in rural and marginalised areas through networks of community resources centres, which offer access to new technologies and information.

AfriAfya conducts research and initiates community communications programmes through resource centres located in vulnerable communities across Kenya, with some activities in other countries in Eastern Africa. According to the organisers, the resource centres represent a focal point within a community for learning and change – a place where community members can seek out information relevant to their needs and exchange knowledge. Each centre is equipped with a computer, printer, television, video player, digital camera, audio tape recorder, mobile phone, and a World Space receiver. Because many of these facilities have no electricity, AfriAfya has facilitated the installation of solar panels and batteries to power the ICTs in the centres.

Polio Tunes on Phones

An anti-polio campaign in India included the use of polio eradication messages on landline and cell phone numbers to raise awareness about polio among phone users. The campaign ran from January 4-7, 2007 and was launched by the office of the civil surgeon.

Telemedicine for Rural Health Clinics in Uganda

The RESCUER project (The Rural Extended Services and Care for Ultimate Emergency Relief) was launched in March 1996, on a pilot basis, in Iganga district in Eastern Uganda. The project helped empower a network of Traditional Birth Attendants to partner with the public health service centers to deliver health care to pregnant women.

A study was carried out in July 1999 to investigate the effect of ICT on maternal health care in the project area, but specifically to find out the role and contribution of the communication component to the referral project. Midwives in primary level referral health units and in the secondary or district referral hospital, project administrators, Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and some women beneficiaries were interviewed using an open ended interview schedule which produced rich qualitative data.

For various reasons, the VHF radio was the type of ICT selected to be used in the project. This included fixed base stations at the health units, mobile walkie talkies with the TBAs, and vehicle radios in the referral hospital ambulance and the District Medical Officer’s vehicle. The VHF radio is solar powered, hence avoiding the common electric power shortage or surge problems.