Sherna's dance

Sherna Hassan, a first-grade student at the Duggo Elementary School in Siasi, Sulu, could not hide her smile when she disclosed, “All of us in school are aware of the Alliance for Mindanao Off-grid Renewable Energy (AMORE) Program because we now have music from the cassette recorder when we have a program in school.”

Thirty households in the remote village of Duggo are now experiencing electricity for the first time under the AMORE Program. The village was lighted up using solar –powered renewable energy systems.  

Sherna is proud that her schoolmates could now perform songs and dances during school programs.  She said this is the very reason why, among her peers, AMORE is popular.  In fact, among the children, membership of their parents in the Duggo Barangay Renewable and Energy Community Development Association (BRECDA) is a privilege. Even among them, the prestige of their parents’ membership and involvement in the Duggo BRECDA is passed on to they who are children of the BRECDA members.

“One other thing is that, I could now do our assignments even after 9 in the evening – the time we usually sleep before the lights came,” she said.  

Sherna shared that whenever their parents had BRECDA clean-up activities in Duggo, the children were involved.  “We are also part of the BRECDA. Our parents tell us to help keep our community clean. Through the lights given by AMORE, we also get to help our school, because the electricity for our school programs comes from AMORE.”

 And with a twinkle in her pretty eyes, Sherna danced the pangalay, a local dance, under AMORE solar lights.