China

Light Up The World, in collaboration with WorleyParsons-Komex, completed a project in September 2008 that brought electric light to children living in a Chinese orphanage. The orphanage provides a home and an education for children who are destitute or parentless. The orphanage compound is located just west of the town of Zaduo, 14,500 feet above sea level in the middle of an open plain in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China.

Previously, the orphanage had been lit with a few fluorescent lights powered by an expensive and unreliable generator. The lights were a drain on the generator and could not be used regularly because of the high cost. Solar powered light is emission free and does not pose the risk of fire and injury without the need for expensive kerosene purchases.

During the summer of 2007, a team of volunteers travelled to the orphanage with the Tibetan Women's Association of Calgary to install Phase I of the project. The volunteer team was provided comprehensive training in LUTW's solid state lighting lab along with all of the equipment need to install basic ambient lighting in the kitchens, children's dorm rooms, teacher/staff dorms, bathrooms and the guard house. The systems were more effective and robust providing bright energy efficient light.

Phase II of the project included the installation of task lighting to allow students to study and teachers to carry out their class preparations after dark. To see a video of the installation, please see below: