Saturday, Dec 03, 2011
Gulf News
Manila Organisers of a programme that installed 11,300 solar light bulbs in Manila’s poor areas in one day hope for a Guinness World Record entry, a local paper has said.
“We are aiming for the largest grassroots green-lighting programme in the world,” Shelly Lazaro, president of Rotary Club of Makati, told the Inquirer after civilian and military volunteers succeeded in installing the much-talked about solar light bulbs, made of water and bleach-filled 1.5 litre plastic soda bottle in 30 depressed communities in 15 cities in Metro Manila.
The volunteers worked with 77 Rotary Clubs to undertake simultaneous installation in the cities, said Lazaro.
Representatives of the Guinness World Records were monitoring the 77 groups that installed the 60-watt solar light bulbs, Lazaro said.
In comparison, groups in Brazil installed 3,000 solar bulbs one day, said Lazaro, adding, “[Aiming to get] the [world] record is just the icing on the cake. Our [true] aim is community service [to poor people in the slum areas].”
Ambitions
Announcing her group’s two ambitious aims, Lazaro predicted the installation of 107,000 solar bulbs nationwide until February next year, and the transfer of the new technology to the poor worldwide, with the help of her club’s international chapters.
Private owners of grocery stores, public market, and warehouses, and rich people should try using solar light bulbs to save on electricity, said Lazaro. She added the eco-friendly project will help the government save on fossil fuel needed for power generation. “It is the spirit of bayanihan [team work] at its best,” Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Sagun, head of the military’s civil relations service, said with when he saw soldiers helping slum-dwellers.
By Barbara Mae Dacanay?Bureau Chief
Gulf News 2011. All rights reserved.
