Download als PDF: PM 4 TV Tip – english
Bonn, 17.11.2010
Press Release Nr. 4
TV tip: renewable energy and poverty alleviation
The development support organisation green energy against poverty
fights against poverty and climate change in India – projects for a better life
Deutschen Welle TV, Monday, 22. November 2010, 15:30 UTC
Series “In Focus”, Feature GLOBAL IDEAS.
Video-on-Demand available; see link at www.greenap.org
A crew from Deutsche Welle TV has filmed the installation of a new “energy kiosk” in India that is financed by the German development support organisation green energy against poverty. The project is implemented by the local partner Applied Environmental Research Foundation AERF of Pune / India and is for indigenous people, the so-called “Adivasi”. In a remote village about 100 km south of Bombay, the new kiosks solar panels will charge the batteries of 100 portable lamps. With their white LEDs they replace the petroleum and kerosene lamps that are still used in many off-grid villages. Kerosene lamps provide only very little light and consume a lot of expensive, harmful and carbon emitting fuel. The TV-Team covered the full setting-up of the kiosk: from transporting the equipment in a three-hour march by foot, carrying heavy loads on heads, to the installation of solar panels on a roof with a shaky ladder, to traditional dances at the village festival that followed the distribution of lamps to the beneficiaries. The Author of the TV film, Ms. Anne Hoffmann, said after the shooting that she was impressed: “The happiness of the people about their new lamps really touched me. We were able to capture wonderful shots.”
A special highlight of the TV film is the release of new solar study lights for children. So far, the children had to use for their school home works and studies kerosene lamps that were hardly providing as much light as a candle. The Indian solar manufacturer THRIVE from Hyderabad has developed this high-tech, low-cost device in the past two years especially to serve children with better lighting and thereby support their education. In the TV film, children receive their own small study lamp which gives 50 times more light than the old kerosene lamps. Their faces speak of their happiness about the new lamps.
The TV film covers other exciting international projects: the Solar Foundation from Germany trains local solar engineers in Ethiopia and experiments with photovoltaic in the village of Rema. Examples on large solar-thermal power plants in the deserts of Morocco and the south of Spain complete the 26-minute film. After its release on Monday 22 November (in German, English, Spanish and Arabian), the film will be broadcast two more times worldwide and will be available on the website of Deutsche Welle TV. A live-stream is available too, so it can be viewed live on the Internet.
green energy against poverty continues to collect funds for setting up more energy kiosks in the neighbouring villages where the TV shooting took place. Donations for more study lights for children are needed too. So far, from the 484 children of the school featured, only 100 children could receive their own study lights.
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