The aim of the partnership between Justonefrickinday and The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) is to build the first solar powered hospital in Kigutu, a village 90 kilometers (56 miles) from the capital Bujumbura (Burundi).
 Ranked the globe's poorest country in the world by the World Bank, Burundi has 68% of its population living below the poverty line, and half of its children out of school. The health issues and obstacles facing the small African country are serious: Burundi is home to about 8 million people and only 156 physicians working in its public hospitals. Rampant illness and ailments include HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, malaria, measles, diarrhea, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and an infant mortality rate that is approaching 20%.
The health crisis facing the southern part of the country is especially severe due to a lack of electricity. Furthermore, villages like Kigutu are made up of subsistence farmers who lack the means to transport themselves to the nearest hospital, which are often many miles away. Even when they are able to find transportation, most are unable to afford treatment for their ailments, including women who are birthing children.
For most of us, electricity is simply a part of life; so much so that we rarely reflect upon where it comes from or the services that we are provided with thanks to electric power. For a hospital, electricity is a vital component to building and maintaining a functional health system: Electricity is needed for lighting and powering medical equipment, including vaccine refrigerators, ultra-sound and X-ray machines, laboratory equipment, computers, and satellites to communication access. While most of us take electricity for granted - SELF recognizes the necessity for a reliable, sustainable source of energy to address the public health crisis in Burundi. Their actions will provide thousands of people with a healthier future.
The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) is a non-profit charitable organization founded in 1990 that designs and implements sustainable energy solutions to improve the health, education and economic well-being of rural communities in the developing world. SELF has completed successful solar energy projects in more than 15 countries throughout Asia, Africa, and parts of South America. Recently, in Rwanda, SELF teamed with Partners In Health (PIH), a non-profit co-founded by world renowned physician Dr. Paul Farmer, to power five rural health centers in the eastern part of the country. The solar panels were so successful in providing sustained and reliable power that PIH has asked SELF to extend its model to other countries where they have operations including Lesotho, Malawi, and Haiti.
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