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Indigenous Engineers Provide Solar Solution for South
posted (April 13, 2021)
Solar powered electricity will soon be going to the remote villages of Machakilha and Graham Creek in the Toledo District. But this feat of engineering won't be carried out by a team of international engineers.

Instead, three Maya women from Toledo, residing right in those southern communities will do the job.

These women travelled to India to received training in solar energy technology, and they are now lighting up villages in the south that have no electricity.

The women have already provided solar power to two villages, and are now expanding their knowledge to bridge the worlds of engineering and humanitarian work.

Courtney Menzies caught up with them today at a training session at Plenty Belize in Jacintoville Toledo and learned more about their knowledge and its value to their communities. Here's here story.

Three women are changing the lives of southern villagers who do not have access to electricity.

It started when they left their homes in Toledo in 2017 and travelled across the world to India for six months to become certified solar engineers.

And now, they're bringing their expertise to needy villages. One of the engineers, Miriam Choc, said that she and her sister made the 10,000 mile journey so that they could help their home village of Santa Elena.

Miriam Choc, Solar Engineer
"We get information with Plenty Belize, they reach my village and they talk about solar because in my village there was no electricity so they asked the villagers if they're interested in having solar light but then two ladies have to go to be trained in India and that was how we, me and my sister, we sacrificed, we volunteer ourselves and we went to India and we stayed there for six months."

"It's difficult because I did not know anything about solar. When we reach there and I was nervous when I see the other ladies doing the training, I thought I wasn't going to be able to learn but when we start to do it, I did learn."

And with this new skill, Choc is happy to bring this basic necessity to villages currently living in the dark.

Miriam Choc, Solar Engineer
"When I am back, I am very happy and I am proud of myself because I know something about solar now and when we reach back to my village, we get a grant through GEF and we electrified all the solar homes in my village. And up to now we are still working, we are going to do the same thing in the other two villages and I am very happy to help the other villages who don't have electricity."

It's that spirit of ENLIGHTENMENT that Her sister, Cristina, also carries to those communities in the dark.

Cristina Choc, Solar Engineer
"In my community, no light, we need light that's why I volunteer myself to go, I left my three children, I go for six months. I happy we brought the light in our village."

Courtney Menzies:
"How did the other villagers feel?"

Cristina Choc, Solar Engineer
"Good too, they are happy to have light."

The third engineer, Florentine Choco, has a similar story but while the sisters went abroad in 2017, she went in 2013, and she alone brought electricity to her own village of Santa Teresa.

Florentine Choco, Solar Engineer
"The first time when I gone, Mr Mark Miller, Plenty Belize, the help me with everything, with my passport. My sons encourage me to go to India to the training, I'm the first woman to travel to India. I see everything is hard in our village because there's no light, no electricity in our village, we just use kerosene and candle so when the villagers gather together and they said they need two ladies and one was me and the next one give up so I said to myself I will do it because I need to help my community. In Santa Teresa it's very hard, especially for the students, so I gone for six months training."

"When I gone in 2013, then come back in 2014, then I waited like two years to get the material. So after then the material reach in Santa Teresa then I start to install each household for the community. Then 2016 I finish, complete all the installation for the village."

Choco explained that she is proud to have opened that door for the two sisters and youths in Toledo.

All three ladies explained that the training was difficult, especially since they had limited education, but their determination and perseverance paid off.

Miriam Choc, Solar Engineer
"I wanted to learn about solar, I didn't have opportunity to go to high school but then it came to my mind that this is the opportunity for me to learn something and then I see that there's no electricity in my village and that makes me do it because I want all the people to have lights, especially for the students, they do homework at night and then that helps them."

Cristina Choc, Solar Engineer
"Like me, I can't read, I only… standard 5 I do. But I see practical and then I try and I learn how to make charge controller and the lanterns, because we do it the practical, that's why I learn."

Florentine Choco, Solar Engineer
"The training is difficult because we just use sign language, I don't know their language, I can't talk Hindi. Yes, it's difficult but still I said to myself that I want to learn something, I want to learn more about solar project."

"I feel very proud of myself because I have learnt something because like me, I never gone to school, no education, I just finish standard 6, that's it."

In Choco's case, she has even received international recognition.

Florentine Choco, Solar Engineer
"The award I received last two years, I receive the award from the queen and I'm very proud of it. It's the award for the Points of Life award from the US Embassy."

The ladies are now waiting on equipment to build solar powered systems for the villages of Machakilha and Graham Creek. They will be imparting some of their knowledge to the women of the village by teaching them how to maintain their system.

After the project is completed, they will continue to provide solar powered electricity under their newly registered company, Belize Power Connected Limited.

This project is through a collaboration between Plenty Belize and the Ministry of Rural Transformation. It is called, "Indigenous Female Solar Engineers Scaling up Solar Energy to Machakilha and Graham Creek."

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