Getting Started
Village Empowerment (VE) was started in 1997 by UMass Lowell students who wanted to do international service work. The group traveled to the Andes of Peru with the university’s chaplain Father Paul Soper. While there, the villagers asked the group for lights and communication in their remote medical clinics.
The next summer, solar engineering students and professor Duffy returned to install photovoltaic systems in two clinics that would power lights and transceiver radios. They also installed a radio in the base hospital on the coast.
“One of the most interesting parts of the trip for me was seeing and experiencing how over half the world’s population lives . . . what made the most impression on me was the willingness of everyone [in the villages] to help for others’ best interests.”
– Student Feedback
Focusing on Student Learning and Sustainable Innovation
From there, students, faculty, and volunteers from a wide variety of disciplines and focuses –including engineering, physical therapy, nursing, and history– made two trips every year to help over 61 villages.
VE’s projects focus on providing communities with sustainable solutions to issues impacting health, water access, agriculture, and the local economy. VE has provided student service-learning projects to students in 33 different college courses.
“Overall this project has provided me with a life changing experience. I hope I continue in a career that can make a difference in the world through the use of engineering technology.”
– Student Feedback
Expanding VE’s Reach
In 2007 the program expanded to include trips to the Tohono O’odham nation reservations in Arizona, where volunteers continued their work to support the local communities and give people the tools and power to continue to grow in a self-sustainable manner.
Now partnered with the SELCO Foundation, started by UMass Lowell alumni Harish Hande, VE aims to continue its work globally.
VE’s Work in Peru
As VE Grows and expands, it’s presence in Peru has decreased over the years. VE continues to support some of the past projects as it moves on to newer projects.
VE started in Peru in 1997. In 1998 UMass Lowell students and faculty installed photovoltaic systems in two clinics of remote villages in the Andes. These systems powered lights and transceiver radios. Another radio was installed at the base hospital on the coast.
“I learned more in Peru, in two and a half, weeks than I would ever have learned in class. I came away from this trip with a greater knowledge of the language, the people, engineering and myself.”
– Student Feedback
From there, a total of 172 students, faculty, and volunteers have ventured to the Andes of Peru, each going an average of twice. Over 100 systems were designed and installed in 61 villages (including 50 radios) addressing basic medical care needs, water supply and water purification, food production, communication, housing, heating, and transportation.
Outlined below are some of the projects and systems that students and volunteers worked on in Peru for over 20 years. These systems support basic needs like medical care, water supply, water purification, food production, communication, housing, heating, and transportation, all while ensuring the community that benefits from them understands and could replicate the system.
Photovoltaic Systems (PV)
VE has installed more than 45 PV systems in Peru. These panels, installed in rural clinics, schools, and churches, are used to power radios, vaccines refrigerators, computers, water pumping, and lights. The systems impact the health, safety, communication, and education of the community, enabling them to continue thriving.
Telecommunication Systems
VE has installed around 50 telecommunication systems, mainly transceiver radios. These systems were installed in the villages’ clinics, enabling faster communication with clinics in times of emergency. Due to the isolation of the communities, these lines of communication are often the difference between life and death.
Solar Water Systems
Solar pumps and water purification systems deliver water to those villages that do not have easy access to a safe supply of drinking water.
One water system installed in a village called Huayash, located at more than a half-mile of the tower, stores the water in the tank. Later the water passes through the yellow cylindrical sand filters. Safe water is dispersed from the valves at the bottom.
Biodigester
Installed by the VE team and villagers in Quian, the biodigester uses organic matter to produce high-quality fertilizer and a combustible gas to use as fuel in a communal kitchen.
VE’s Work in Arizona
In 2007 VE began similar projects in AZ , working with Tohono O’odham Community College (TOCC), VE attempted to meet the needs of the TO people whose livelihood and culture, as the indigenous people of Peru, are at risk due to the potential and current challenges that global warming creates for their agricultural lifestyle. VE aimed to provide the TO people with resources that fit their traditions using a resource that is present in abundance: the sun.
In collaboration with UMass Lowell and TOCC, VE was able to help with multiple projects listed below to support the TO people and to help train local students. VE continues to support the TO people when possible and to maintain the systems and tools it helped develop.
Solar bathrooms
The first of these projects was to design, build, and test solar bathrooms. These bathrooms are stand-alone units for use in more remote locations. They include photovoltaics for electricity, solar thermal water heating, and evaporative cooling systems. These bathrooms were meant to replace open pit toilets in outhouses.
Mobile Educational Unit
The VE project created a mobile demonstration trailer for educating the community about sustainable energy. The mobile demonstration unit was built as a small off-the-grid solar trailer house. The demo trailer contains a photovoltaic panel that provides power to small appliances within. On the exterior of the trailer is a solar oven, a dryer, and a solar drip irrigation system. The trailer also includes a passive solar hot water system. The displays inside focus on geothermal, solar, and wind power energies.
Photovoltaic (PV) Systems
In the village of Pisinemo, four grid-tied, ground-mounted PV systems were installed by TOCC students with assistance from UMass Lowell students and VE volunteers. The supporting structures had undergone degradation from the environment. They were redesigned and reinstalled by VE volunteers and UML students. A fifth PV system in not grid-connected but relies on batteries as backup power for a tiny house.
A photovoltaic (PV) water pump system
VE helped install a solar watering pump system in Squash Burn Well. The system is designed to provide for approximately 150 roaming cattle and wild horses. Four 300 W solar panels provide power to a submersible helical pump at a depth of roughly 300 feet down a well, which was initially drilled in the 1930s during the depression. The existing storage tank has an estimated 15 days of water storage and feeds a trough where the cattle drink.