Solar power expands entry to well being care

Solar power expands entry to well being care

By technique of Etelka Lehoczky

Many infants are born on the Alokpatsa Community-Based Health Planning and Services compound, a well being middle in jap Ghana. And through the years, a lot of these kids have been born in the dead of night.

“We don’t have any energy. All now we have are lamps and candles,” mentioned Nelson Addy, former group chief on the Oti regional middle facility. “When the lady who gave start was torn and we needed to stitch, it was very troublesome for us. We have to shut our eyes to our cellphone [flashlights] to do stitching.”

That modified when the Rotary Club of Accra-Spintex, within the Greater Accra area of Ghana, put in a brand new solar energy system on the middle. The challenge included an entire rewiring and, importantly, many lights.

“In the surgical ward, we be sure that they do not should be used anymore [phone] lights,” says Nortse Amarteifio, the president of the Accra-Spintex membership, whose photo voltaic firm donated labor and a few supplies for the $21,000 set up. “We have additionally put in photo voltaic avenue lights across the compound and on the highway in entrance of the hospital.”

One of the primary moms to provide start after set up was so pleased with the upgrades, Addy mentioned, she used “Solar” because the identify of one among her kids. “It feels prefer it’s all deliberate by nature for the kid to see the primary gentle positioned in Alokpatsa,” he mentioned.

Solar options

Solar power used to energy the Alokpatsa well being middle, however that system is not operational. The clinic employees is worked up for the return of a photo voltaic system. The Alokpatsa set up is one among many Rotary initiatives that use solar energy to enhance entry to healthcare world wide. In the previous dozen years, Rotary golf equipment have put in solar energy techniques in well being facilities in Nepal, Haiti, Pakistan, Mexico, Armenia, India, and plenty of African international locations – and there’s extra to do. . An estimated 1 billion individuals in low-income international locations are served by well being amenities that lack dependable electrical energy or don’t have any electrical energy in any respect, in line with a 2023 report by the World Health Organization. In sub-Saharan Africa, solely half of hospitals have dependable electrical energy. Extreme climate, typically linked to local weather change, exacerbates the issue, growing power prices and damaging energy grids.

“Off-grid well being amenities should have entry to wash, dependable power options,” mentioned Luciana Mermet, who works for the United Nations Development Program as supervisor of the Global Fund Partnership and Health Systems Team, HIV and Health Group. “And we’re not simply speaking about options in rural areas. Urban areas also can have unreliable energy grids. If you do not have reasonably priced and sustainable entry to power, you’ve gotten conditions the place you ship [babies] by candlelight or the place you can not refrigerate well being merchandise that you might want to deal with. “

Women who give start in rural areas are among the many most affected by these deficiencies, in line with the WHO report. This downside is what impressed Annie Ninyesiga, president of the Rotary Club of Bwebajja, Uganda, to put in a photo voltaic system in a rural well being middle in her nation. His membership secured a Rotary Foundation international grant in partnership with the Rotary Club of Aarau, Switzerland, to pay for a $76,000 maternal and youngster well being challenge, which additionally supplies medical tools, ambulances, and coaching for well being employees. , village well being group members, and conventional start attendants.

“This middle serves a really massive inhabitants in hard-to-reach areas,” Ninyesiga mentioned. “We suppose it is necessary that individuals have entry to, a minimum of, fundamental maternal and youngster well being help.” He added that photo voltaic is superior to the hydroelectric energy grid within the space. “Hydroelectric energy is unreliable. It’s on and off,” he mentioned. “Sometimes you possibly can’t even cost a cellphone. Sometimes it offers gentle however doesn’t run any tools.”

Not solely do photo voltaic panels preserve lights on and home equipment operating, they decrease electrical energy payments and scale back the necessity for turbines that burn costly – and climate-unfriendly – gasoline. Health amenities have lots of funds for affected person care. By putting in a solar energy system at Hospital Bienfaisance in Pignon, Haiti, a Rotary challenge diminished the hospital’s $4,000 month-to-month gasoline prices.

Even in areas with few or no well being facilities, solar energy can present well being care to individuals actually. Some photo voltaic panels allow a physician to transform a van or trailer right into a cell clinic to serve distant areas.

Change in vaccine storage

Solar energy can be revolutionizing vaccine storage. Many vaccines must be saved at a temperature of 36 to 46 levels Fahrenheit (2 to eight levels Celsius). Oral polio vaccine will be saved at this temperature for six months. In areas with restricted or no electrical energy, or frequent energy outages, vaccine fridges are sometimes powered by kerosene. They can solely work if there’s gasoline obtainable, so there are occasions when there are not any vaccines to retailer. Also, the sort of fridge typically supplies uneven cooling, which might injury the vaccines inside.

“Sometimes the fridge is probably not working completely – the management is just not good,” mentioned Souleymane Kone, group chief for WHO’s Essential Program on Immunization. “At evening the temperature might drop to -1 Celsius [30 Fahrenheit] generally, and throughout the day it rises, exposing the vaccine to extreme warmth.”

In 2015 Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, one among Rotary’s companions within the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, discovered that as much as 90 p.c of well being amenities in some international locations are geared up with outdated, outdated, or damaged fridges. Since then, Gavi, UNICEF (one other GPEI accomplice), and different NGOs have centered on switching to photo voltaic direct drive fridges. First launched in 2010, these fridges are powered immediately by the solar with out utilizing batteries. Solar power freezes water or one other freezeable substance to type an “ice financial institution” contained in the unit that maintains the proper temperature after sundown. Costing about $4,000, a fridge can preserve vaccines chilly for 3 days or extra with out daylight.

“It is crucial for us, particularly when growing the protection of routine vaccinations, that now we have adequate chilly chain storage capability in any respect totally different ranges, together with distant areas, together with these place the place there’s fixed energy change,” mentioned Anahitta Shirzad, a well being specialist with UNICEF’s Immunization Supply Chain program.

“Solar direct drive fridges are coming in very, very useful,” Shirzad mentioned. “They are supportive [our goal of] reaching the unreached. We are wanting on the final mile. “

Solar direct drive know-how works finest with motors equivalent to these utilized in followers or pumps, whereas many installations that energy whole buildings use photo voltaic batteries to retailer extra power. In Alokpatsa, the Rotary membership photo voltaic set up makes it potential to function a water pump, sterilizer, and fridge that shops vaccines for 2 different amenities within the space. It additionally powers a humble, however nonetheless welcome, piece of kit: an iron.

“When the sunshine got here on, I used to be capable of iron my uniform,” mentioned Addy. “Everyone locally can now see me as knowledgeable. I’m very joyful. I do not even know tips on how to specific this happiness.”

This story initially appeared within the June 2024 challenge of Rotary journal.