The Powering Health web platform aims to be a melting-pot for knowledge share for those curious to energize health services for people in need. We bring here the stories and articles from different such activities undertaken by partners and peers.

Back-Up Power Installations Meet Critical Energy Needs at Haitian Health Facilities

In Haiti, USAID is implementing the Improving Health Facility Infrastructure (IHFI) project, focused on providing reliable electrical power to hospitals and clinics throughout the country.

Providing a Reliable Energy System for Zanmi Lasante Hospital

The Zanmi Lasante hospital in Boucan Carré, Haiti serves at least 100 patients daily. To meet its energy needs, the hospital relied largely on a diesel powered generator with an undersized inverter/battery back-up system. The hospital's fuel costs were high and there was no back up system to supply its power needs.

Training Haitian Technicians to Install Solar PV Systems

USAID provided a two week hands-on training for real world installations of inverter / battery / PV systems in Boucan Carré, Haiti in September 2009. The hands-on training costs were underwritten by USAID.

The Energy for Health Fund

The Energy for Health Fund (EfHf) is an innovative funding mechanism that arises from the collaboration of Sun Energy Power International (SunEPI), an NGO with significant developing country solar PV installation experience, and Tetra Tech, an established infrastructure development company under contract to USAID. This partnership brings together international experience and local installation capability.

Map of Jordan and its neighbors. Bordering Jordan (clockwise) are Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Israel, The West Bank (Israeli-occupied) and Golan Heights (Israeli-occupied). The capital, Amman, is located in the Northeast portion of the country between the West Bank and Syria.

USAID Releases Results of Hospital Energy and Water Audits: Potential Savings Can Reach JD100,000

JORDAN - The USAID Jordan Economic Development Program (SABEQ) has released the results of energy and water audits recently conducted with the purpose of increasing the water and energy efficiency and overall competitiveness of Jordanian hospitals.

A group of Hatian health care workers pose with USAID trainers at a seminar in Jacmel, Haiti.

Training health facility workers in Haiti

JACMEL, HAITI - USAID conducted a training course focused on improving energy services to support laboratory infrastructure at local health facilities.

A closet full of non-functioning equipment at a health clinic in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The equipment includes rows of microscopes and centrifuges.

Assessing health facilities in Ethiopia

ETHIOPIA - USAID conducted a two-week energy assessment of health facilities to make recommendations to PEPFAR.

Six boys fill small water bottles from a spigot at the edge of a field.

Power for Water

In Uganda, diarrheal diseases are responsible for 17% of deaths for children under 5 and account for 30,000 deaths per year in all age groups. In addition, families spend countless hours each day transporting water from source to point-of-use locations. In the conflict-affected regions in the North, the daily trek to get water increases the vulnerability of women to attack.

Visitors gather around a patient in a newly renovated hospital room.

Energy Efficiency Brings Health Benefits

In Gabrovo, Bulgaria, a USAID project focused on upgrading heating, ventilation, and energy management control systems, as well as lighting, windows, water heating equipment, and combined heat and power (cogeneration) systems. While the primary focus of the project was to demonstrate energy and financial savings to local officials, the project also yielded important health benefits.

Photo of a small open refrigerator containing blood packaged for tranfusion.

Energy and Health: Fatal Consequences

The 17 year old girl had been bleeding for four days when she arrived at the Sacré-Coeur hospital in the small town of Milot, on Haiti's northern coast. She had recently seen a local healer for pregnancy-related care, but the treatment had damaged her reproductive organs. She arrived at the hospital bleeding, infected, and in need of a transfusion to replace the blood she had lost. Doctors sent a courier to the blood bank in nearby Cap Haitien, a large city some 15 kilometers from Milot. Hours passed. The girl continued to bleed.

A doctor performs an ultrasound test on an expectant mother.

The View from Maternal Health

Those of us in the international health field recognize the direct links between the work we do and the energy needs that our work demands. However, rarely do we think about strategically addressing those needs and ensuring that our energy demands are met in a technically sound and appropriate manner. Recently, a small group of health professionals in maternal and reproductive health met to identify areas in which the lack of reliable energy supply limits the reach of particular health interventions. As we looked at this list, we realized that quite a bit of work remains to be done to educate health professionals about the importance of making wise investments in energy activities in order to deliver health services effectively and efficiently. Here are just a few of the issues we uncovered.

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Last updated: December 01, 2010

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