During 2006, in El Salvador INTERVIDA develop rural electrification projects that will directly benefit more than 300 people. In April, the organization has begun work to bring electricity to the village Cacho de Oro, in the Department of La Libertad, where its 115 residents have no electricity.

The world 1600 million people without access to electricity, a shortage that is seriously damaging the economic and social development of the inhabitants. In El Salvador this basic service is scarce in rural areas, where even 28 percent of households do not have this basic service, compared to 3.5 percent of urban households, according to data from the Household Survey Multi-Purpose 2004. This situation is mainly due to the high cost of conventional electricity is installed in remote areas of distribution networks. In addition, many of these communities live in poverty and have no financial ability to afford it.
Cacho
the village of Oro is located in the municipality of Teotepeque, where 58.5 percent of households living in poverty total, according to the 2005 Poverty Map published by the Social Investment Fund for Local Development of El Salvador (FISDL). Its inhabitants, lacking essential services such as energy and water in their homes (with a drinking water well with a pulley system), living in highly vulnerable, especially women and children.

INTERVIDA, which in this project with support from the German Cooperation Agency (GTZ), aims to improve the living conditions of the community through the use of renewable energy. To do this, place a plate photovoltaic power system in every household in the hamlet of 22 families. These systems use solar energy, which helps to protect and conserve the environment. In addition, among other benefits, these families may cook more safely, stop using candles and kerosene for lighting their homes, and children will have light to do their homework.

Moreover, from July next, it will launch another project to provide electricity to three rural schools in the departments of San Vicente and Usulután, benefiting 201 people. These actions will enable extended school activities and education, the availability of light not only for schoolchildren but also for adult literacy. Moreover, in rural villages as a meeting point for the community is often the school, the electricity will enable evening meetings and / or at night, training workshops, festivals and other cultural activities.

Source: Intervida