Power Grid for General Hospital in Lodja

Because of COVID-19, our area is isolated from the rest of the Congo. There are no flights, making it clear that we must be self-sustaining as we face the future and possible pandemics.

The general hospital serves the entire region, including patients who cannot pay. However, it lacks adequate power for lighting, microscopes, ultrasound machines, incubators, refrigeration, internet, etc--let alone respirators, which may be needed in the future.

The empty building in front of the hospital is the perfect location for a power grid. The grid will supply multiple solar panels and therefore answer all energy needs of the hospital. We plan on making this an example for all of the Congo. There are no rich areas when there is energy poverty. Our area is among the poorest.

Our solution--to harness the  sun to resolve present and future health needs--will provide a model which can be followed globally.

The sad fact is that we fail to save many of our patients. We lose hundreds a year. We are are simply not equipped to treat some emergencies or chronic diseases because we lack sufficient power. We have no electrical grid in Lodja and a few solar panels provide the only source of power for all our needs--including future needs. Certainly if COVID-19 or a similar disease were to affect our area, we could not power ventilators or refrigerate needed supplies. We are among the poorest communities, and without reliable, sustainable power, we will continue to be poor.

Over 1 billion people on earth live in energy poverty. There are NO rich countries which are energy-poor. In order for us to serve now and prepare to serve later, we need a steady power source.

The population in our area is over 800,000. The poorest depend on us for their health needs. With a solar power grid, we can fully address the enormous needs, including the poverty of good information. Solar power gives us the ability to broadcast information via radio, to better train medical students at our university--who do not yet have computers--and to improve the quality of our care.

A solar power grid uses solar generators and multiple solar panels in a central location to provide sustainable energy for businesses, radio broadcasts, medical equipment, and homes. The grid we intend to use includes cables which can lead to various health-related centers, the hospital and its associated needs, namely a refrigeration center, a research center with functioning microscopes, full lighting for all patient rooms, an ultrasound center, and equipment which prepares us for a possible pandemic later--heart monitors and ventilators, which we do not have at present.

We intend this solar grid to immediately save lives but also to provide a pilot pattern for other communities in the Congo, demonstrating how solar power can prepare us for the best technology and raise our standard of living and health care.

We must anticipate future isolation, such as we are currently facing. Since March, we have had no flights from any major city to Lodja. Even I (Veron Okavu), am stuck in Kinshasa with no way to return to my home until our airport opens again.

We can only imagine the havoc a future pandemic could wreak on our area. We could have a catastrophic death toll. Thus, we must prepare.

Our target population is in the Sankuru Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. We intend to place our pilot project near the general hospital in Lodja, the largest town in the area. As we show the success of our project, we plan on inspiring other towns and cities in the Congo--a nation of 87 million people.

I, Veron Okavu, am a Catholic priest, an author and poet, and the president of the University of Science and Technology in Lodja. The university I head trains young people for medical professions, and doctors from the general hospital serve on our faculty. I was born in Lodja in 1959 and used money from an academic prize (60,000 euros) I won to build schools for my people, who were suffering from the atrocities and trauma of the Congo War (1998-2003).

I am keenly aware of the needs of Lodja and surrounding villages. I have visited the USA twice and have explored the possibilities of solar power with American executives. We will work with an American company (Ironwood/InergyTek) in installing and maintaining this grid. We know how to keep the equipment secure and are committed to sustaining it.

Prevent and mitigate:

Supply chains which can cease at a moment's notice. They did with the advent of COVID-19. Therefore, we must create our own support.

We now know what complete isolation is. The solar grid we propose will allow us to sustain ourselves at present and in the future. We can identify most tropical diseases, but cannot at present treat many. The one essential is POWER. Without a way to power our equipment and refrigerate medicine, it is all useless.

We include in our proposal a commitment to growing Cinchona trees to have quinine without awaiting its transport.

Solar panels are common in Lodja at the homes of wealthy residents. Most homeowners want basic power--enough to provide energy to light a home and power a television.

The needs of a hospital go far beyond that. In Lodja, there are only two options: solar power or generator power (diesel fueled). The generator is costly and diesel fuel is exorbitant. It's clear that solar power is the best alternative.

Establishing a solar grid--not just putting up a solar panel with accompanying batteries--is a new resolution for an old problem. Particularly when a hospital is involved, power is essential for health care to be successful. Should a pandemic hit the Lodja area, the hospital would simply not be able to provide care. It has no ventilators, no ability to perform advanced surgery. Even if it had these supplies, it lacks the power to keep them going.

The innovation here is the size of the solar power grid. It can completely power the entire hospital but can also power businesses, such a juice-making.

At present, Lodja is completely isolated from other parts of the Congo. There are no flights from the large cities to Lodja because of COVID-19. A solar grid would make isolation irrelevant, because all equipment would be self-sustaining. We have a refrigerator, for example. It does not function, however, because it has no power.

A solar grid includes a large solar generator and multiple panels and charging outlets.

We have a part-time faculty member of USTL who has worked in the beer bottling industry and so knows how to bottle juices. He is prepared to help once we have the necessary energy source.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA41muq5YZQ#action=share

Solar panels already work in Lodja, though they are more expensive than what most people can afford, especially in the distant villages. The solar grid magnifies the power and makes it sufficient to our specific and desperate needs.

Solar power as a grid rather than a simple panel will power all rooms of the general hospital, thus making microscopes functional, refrigerators useful, and anticipating future needs like ultrasound machines and ventilators.

The grid also makes some businesses possible, utilizing our natural resources (fruit and chincona) to start profitable industries.

The theory of change is that solar power is a known commodity and is already used in our base. With greater capacity to access more of this power, much more can be accomplished.

Currently, homes which have solar panels provide themselves with lights and occasionally with television sets. The panels also allow for cell phone or laptop charging. As we increase the available wattage, we increase the potential to effect change and improve health care and business. We go from powering a light bulb to powering an entire hospital and business center.

Current: We treat about 5,000 patients per year. We lack most of what other functioning hospitals require. With four solar panels, we can get energy to only four rooms.

One year: Once the power grid is up, the hospital becomes a new place. The machines which don't work now will be powered up to work. We anticipate that the fully lit hospital will also inspire a new standard of hygiene. The number of patients we treat will be about the same, but they will get better care.

Five years: By this point, we intend to have associated industries (chincona tree cultivation and juicing factories) up and running. Because these industries will employ farmers and pineapple growers, the potential for profitable employment will affect at least another thousand people, perhaps more. Their work will in turn affect the entire economy, and we anticipate that other businesses will begin.

Next year: We will take the first steps towards equipping the hospital with a solar mini grid. If the grant is not adequate for the entire grid, then we will start with what it will pay for: solar generators and multiple panels. Each generator costs $1000. Generators can also be combined in anticipation of a full grid.

Within five years: We anticipate having the grid up and functioning and having the associated businesses running.

We cannot estimate how many lives we will save because of the improved technology, but surely it will be in the thousands.

There are two barriers: transportation and theft.

We will put the grid in the empty building, which can be locked. It will be necessary to hire security guards, though most people in Lodja are honest.

Transportation is the bigger issue. The equipment must be transported from China to the Matadi port in the Congo and then to Lodja. If airports are closed, that final transport can happen via barge from Matadi to Dibeli and then via truck to Lodja.

Barriers in the next five years remain the same, though we will then be transporting bottled juice. There are ways around the absence of air transport, though they take far longer.

Security guards and alternate transportation routes.

The Inergy Tek/Ironwood company already has a contract with China allowing them to ship the solar equipment to Matadi. China has been given latitude to ship many things, so we don't anticipate a problem.

Because there is a water route to Lodja should airports be closed, we can find a way to get the equipment to its destination.

Our team includes the administration of the University of Science and Technology in Lodja (10 members, including doctors from the general hospital), the CEOS of the Ironwood Energy Corporation (3 members), and the board of the Congo Rising Corporation (5 members).

Total: 18

The Ironwood Team will send CEO David Erickson to Lodja to install the grid. He is already in communication with Dr. Okavu.

2 members of Congo Rising have been to Lodja multiple times and assessed the property and needs. They connected USTL with Ironwood/Inergytek. They will return when the grid is established.

Mr. David Erickson has worked in energy fields in emerging markets for ten years and has established successful businesses in the Congo. He launched the Goal Zero solar initiatives in the Congo in 2011. He has now founded a more ambitious company, Ironwood (Inergytek.com), which goes beyond solar panels to solar generators and grids.

Dr. Veron Okavu began building schools and supporting the hospital in 2003. He employs doctors as part-time faculty in the university he oversees, and supports students who plan on becoming doctors. He also brings doctors and other professors to the university from Kinshasa.

Margaret Blair Young (who is writing this proposal in English in coordination with Veron Okavu), is the president of Congo Rising (www.congorising.org), and has accompanied other American executives and university administrators to Lodja three times. She has visited several of the surrounding villages and thus knows something of the poverty there. Though she lives in the USA, she is in frequent contact with students at USTL in Lodja. She brought an American pediatrician there in 2017, and the two were shortly summoned to a dangerous birth. The mother had walked several miles to the hospital but the baby was in breech position and already in process of birth. It died one minute after being pulled from the womb. Ms. Young worked hand in hand with several of the doctors at the general hospital and learned about their specific needs. Congo Rising provided some equipment but was not positioned to provide a solar grid.

www.inergytek.com

www.congorising.org

www.ust-lodja.org

Congo Rising (www.congorising.org) works directly with the University of Science and Technology at Lodja and with the general hospital in providing solutions to immediate challenges. Representatives of Congo Rising have spent a total of five months in Lodja to fully assess the issues and possible solutions.

Inergy Tech (www.inergytek.com) includes specialists in solar power and sustainable businesses for underserved populations. Its executives have already worked successfully in the DR-Congo and therefore know about the challenges and already have ways to surmount them.

The University of Science and Technology (www.ust-lodja.org) was established in 2011. Dr. Veron Okavu became its president in 2015. It often works hand-in-hand with the general hospital, as the university trains pre-med students and includes doctors from the hospital in its part-time faculty.

Our business model starts with a solar grid to power the general hospital and associated businesses, thus assuring quality health care for all who come from nearby villages. The hospital doctors perform surgeries, do maternity care, and treat a variety of tropical diseases on a daily basis.

As we power the hospital, we also make power-based businesses (such as juice making and medicine production) possible.

We currently serve 800,000 people, many of whom are on the extreme end of the poverty scale. We do not know how many have died because of our current isolation. We normally transport doctors from Kinshasa and Goma to our hospital to perform such complicated surgeries as fistula repair. We have not been able to do that since March.

Our hospital is in bad repair, but as businesses are inaugurated, we anticipate being able to upgrade the hospital (pictures included in the youtube). We are working in vain, though, if we don't have a steady power source. We have no running water and some of the hospital rooms lack even a hand-washing unit and soap. As we upgrade our power, we anticipate upgrading our standard of care as well.

The power grid itself comprises a large solar generator (contracts with China already exist) with attached panels and cables to fuel the entire hospital and one hundred surrounding houses and businesses. The grid would assure our survival should another pandemic isolate us again.

A juice-making industry, made possible by reliable power, could involve hundreds of the area's residents. The quinine we will produce could be sold on the international market after rigorous testing. There are many possibilities.

At the moment, however, we are focused on improving our patient care and preparing for any future health crisis.

We searched for an organization which could provide immediate relief for the additional challenges which came with the COVID-19 cessation of travel in the Congo and specifically to the Lodja area.

Solve would help us in key areas--not only in providing the technology to power the general hospital but in teaching PLANNING.

We have long said that the real impediment to progress in Lodja is the mentality of the people. The post-war sensibilities must be re-trained so that we all can plan and work together for the future.

The mentoring offered by Solve is every bit as valuable as the money.

Because we intend the power station to go beyond providing energy for the hospital, we seek understanding of ways to start and maintain businesses. Our area was the center of a war from 1998-2003. We are still in post-war reconstruction and many of our buildings have sustained damage.

The mentality which often accompanies a traumatic time often cannot see or imagine beyond the next twenty-four hours. We need help to teach simple planning. The Inergy-tek people will accomplish the first part of this, but we need more help if associated businesses are to succeed.

During the time of the Belgian Congo, Lodja was a recreation center, a place for vacation. We are now abjectly poor and have few functioning industries. We have a firm desire to lift ourselves beyond the present malaise and into a glorious future.

Solve Members

MIT faculty

Note that Lodja is a French and Tetela speaking area. We have only a handful of people who can conduct basic communication in English. I, Dr. Okavu, cannot speak English and so have enlisted Margaret Young to represent me in this proposal.

Therefore, it would be wonderful if future helpers could be from Francophone countries (preferably African). Certainly, they would need to speak French.

Our solution to our problem is certainly innovative--and we are lucky that we already have structures which fit the model we've chosen for a solar power grid.

More important is the sustainability of our solution and the fact that it will instantly impact our region and continue to impact it permanently. The associated businesses will make a huge difference to our economy and will also be sustainable.

Were we to receive The People's Prize, we would be able to implement a full power grid rather than just the generators and we would be able to build an entire factory for producing and bottling fruit juice. Pineapples are prolific in our area, as are mangoes and papayas. Pineapples are sold in Kinshasa for three times what they're sold for in Lodja. Fruit juice is an obvious product for economic stability.