Thanks for the light

Barangay Darampua, Sultan Sa Barongis, Maguindanao, Philippines – Cheers accompanied the first switch-on of electric lights in the 30 households in this remote village that were recently energized with stand-alone solar home systems by the Alliance for Mindanao Off-grid Renewable Energy (AMORE) Program of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Mirant Philippines Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and the US-based global non-profit organization, Winrock International.  

“We stayed up until four in the morning—until the moment when the bulb was first switched on and light flooded our house. Shouts of joy echoed throughout our house and we immediately called up our municipal mayor and told him the happy news,” recounts Yasser Diakal, Village Chairman of Darampua and member of the Barangay Renewable Energy and Community Development Association (BRECDA) that AMORE organized in the village and is training to operate and maintain the systems and expand the community’s development.

AMORE came when Darampua’s residents almost gave up hope that their village could still be electrified. Their municipal government could not grant them their request for electric service because their village was too far from the grid. Since AMORE lighted up their village, cases of theft of their carabaos and chickens, their main sources of income, have decreased significantly. Convenience stores in the community can now extend their operating hours with much less fear of being looted. The BRECDA members are now working together to clear a communal farm and improve the roads going to the village. The more enterprising among them are even thinking of putting up a kapiterya (local coffee house) in the site.

“Other NGOs have entered our village and tried to put up a people’s organization. So far, only the Darampua BRECDA has been showing success, as evident in the full participation of our members and the rest of our community, even the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), in our projects. We thank AMORE for making our dream and that of our children come true,” says Diakal. The MILF is the largest Islamic separatist group that operates in Southern Philippines.