The Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Alumni- Bangladesh observed Global Youth Service Day from April 20-22, 2012. The motivated youth group took up an innovative idea to illuminate the lives of those who had little to almost no light even during the day; by installing solar bottle bulbs.
Developed in Brazil, practiced in the Philippines’ to address under-illuminated slums, the solar bottle light is a simple idea that has expanded to other developing areas where many low-income homes lack access to either daylight or electricity. The solar bottle bulbs reuses clear plastic bottles filled with water and a few drops of chlorine to keep the water clean, clear and bacteria free. The bottle is inserted half way through the roof to allow sunlight from outside to illuminate the inside of homes through refraction of light.
For the first phase, a group of 25 YES alumni and peers installed 35 solar bottles in three slum areas in Dhaka including South Bishil, Shamoly, and Pike Para.
The second phase, under the name ‘Removing Darkness of the Day – Solar Bottle Bulb’ lasted from 5 to 11 September 2012 illuminating over a hundred households in the slum of Kalshi, Mirpur-12, impacting about 600 people. K-L YES Alumnus Gulshan Jubaed Prince and fellow BYEI member Shitab Daiyan Akash initiated the project. International Education and Resource Network-Bangladesh (iEARN-BD) and Bangladesh Youth Environmental Initiative (BYEI) sponsored the project. Several youth leaders from K-L YES Alumni Bangladesh volunteered for the project with utmost dedication.
There is a plan of arranging a fundraiser, and installing solar panels in the community of the slum in Kalshi, so that the residents can utilize the electricity, which seems to be a scarce resource. Such an initiative would ensure at least partial exemption from the over 7 hours of daily power cuts, and sustain electrical machineries such as television and ceiling fans. The people are eager for such a day when the government would come and aid their distressful lives.
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Project Coordinator: Gulshan Jubaed Prince, K-L YES Alumni Bangladesh
Written by: Mohammad Mustahsin Islam, K-L YES Alumni Bangladesh
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