Volunteers from electric cooperatives in Missouri continued an effort to light up Bolivia this winter through a project called “Brighter Bolivia.”
Last month, six volunteer linemen, including Casey Schwartze from Three Rivers Electric Cooperative in Linn, went to build power lines for people living without electricity.
Schwartze said he wanted to experience a different culture and help out.
“I don’t know how many other opportunities I will have to do something like this,” he said in a Three Rivers news release. “It was well worth it, and I would definitely do it again.”
Three Rivers officials said the electrification project is made possible through a partnership between the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s International Program with matching funds from the Cooperative Finance Corporation.
The Brighter Bolivia team from Missouri was selected from among volunteers at electric cooperative systems around the state.
Cooperative officials said the first phase of the project took place Dec. 3-16 in a mountainous region of Bolivia in the state of Cochabamba at Chapisirca. The region has a poverty rate of 60 percent, and it is estimated 285,000 people there do not have electricity. Those living in the mountain village grow potatoes to earn their living and farm using oxen. Their children study by the light of candles.
Schwartze said there were many challenges working in the 13,000-foot elevation. The weather ranged from blazing sunlight to torrential downpours with strong winds. At times, heavy clouds would move in, reducing visibility to just a few feet.
All of the work was done by hand with only the tools the men could bring with them. Trucks used to haul potatoes to market were used to string the wire, and poles were set using ropes.
When the second team completes its portion of the project in January and early February, the cooperative volunteers will have constructed 3.5 miles of power lines in Bolivia.
Electric cooperatives in Missouri have sent volunteers to other countries in the past, and this is the second time the state has made a coordinated group effort to bring electricity to unserved areas. In August 2016, a team traveled to Riberalta in the Amazon region of Bolivia to build power lines that now bring electricity to two small villages.