Renewable Energy Technologies
We’re fighting a specific kind of poverty in Moldova, Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina: energy poverty. Electricity and fuel are either unavailable or very expensive, especially in rural areas. Children often learn in classrooms that don’t have enough heat and study by candlelight at night. The limited fuels that are available pollute the environment and damage the health of the people who use them.
Working with local organizations, we're helping families install and use renewable technologies instead. That means solar panels for electricity. Solar water heaters so that houses and schools have hot water. Solar dryers for fruits and vegetables so tha families or cooperatives can preserve and sell produce. Greenhouses to expand vegetable production. Composting toilets that turn waste into compost. Briquette presses so that families can turn yard waste into a fuel source to use and sell.
Through this program, families have electricity. Schools have hot water. Cooperatives have income streams. More people have jobs. And our world is cleaner.
Fighting Energy Poverty in Georgia
Latest Updates
Catching Up With an Old Friend in Georgia
“I live in the village of Kheta in the western part of Georgia,” says Tamar Chumburidze. “I am a mother of three and have two grandchildren. We all live together and our main source of income is a small plot of land where we grow [bay] laurel trees, vegetables and fruit for sale. The income we make is hardly enough …
The Best Lens to View the World Through
I love scrolling through the pages of photos that tell the CWS story. There’s a kid-in-a-candy-shop moment when a photo request comes across my desk. When I do, I am immediately transported back to the trips I’ve taken. What’s the best part about those trips? The amazing–let me emphasize that, AMAZING–people I’ve met along the way. I’m never fully packed …
Portable solar panels mean electricity and easier living for families in Herzegovina
Morine is a hut settlement high in the mountains of the Herzegovina region in Bosnia-Herzegovina. For centuries, people in this area have been practicing a nomadic lifestyle and are well-known for cattle breeding and producing cheese. The roughly 20 families in Morine are dedicated to preserving their tradition of cattle breeding far from industrialized farms. But in order to make …