<\/p>\n
With its sweeping vistas, dramatic formations in places such as Monument Valley and ruins and relics of Four Corners residents long vanished, the Navajo Reservation is a beautiful place. But the lives of many of its residents, who live in isolation without many of the comforts most of us take for granted, can be difficult at best.<\/p>\n
One thing it has in plentiful supply is sunshine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were planning a solar light project for Nepal when Rick (LeGrand) said, \u2018It\u2019s so great we do international projects, but there are people right here who have needs, too,\u2019\u201d said Durango Daybreak Rotary Club member Nancy Lauro. \u201cWe usually work here in La Plata County, but we don\u2019t have to look at geography as political boundaries. The Navajo are our neighbors, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
It took a little persistence on LeGrand\u2019s part to convince the club\u2019s Community Service Committee to take a look, but when they did, what they found astonished them.<\/p>\n
Third World conditions<\/p>\n
There are more than 69,000 households in the Navajo Nation, and those in rural areas have no access to basic utilities. The statistics tell the broad story:<\/p>\n
16,000 homes do not have electricity.<\/p>\n
It can cost up to $27,000 per mile to install electricity lines, which isn\u2019t economically feasible for a few homes 20 to 30 miles away from the nearest line.<\/p>\n
Three of five homes lack telephones.<\/p>\n
The unemployment rate is 44 percent.<\/p>\n
Median family annual income is $11,885.<\/p>\n
89 percent of rural homes rely solely on woodstoves for heat.<\/p>\n
55 percent of rural homes lack complete kitchen facilities.<\/p>\n
51 percent of rural homes lack complete plumbing facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cOK, we\u2019re interested and want to help, what do we do?\u201d Lauro said the committee asked.<\/p>\n
One club member, B.J. Boucher, had volunteered with the Adopt-an-Elder Program for many years, and she felt club members needed to truly understand the need and learn about the culture before diving in.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people went on food runs,\u201d Boucher said. \u201cThey met a lot of elders, mostly weavers or craftspeople. They identified a need for light, a significant need that would really improve lifestyles.\u201d<\/p>\n
For its Nepal project, the club had found a $200 solar light kit that was designed in Sweden. It\u2019s durable, with lithium batteries that should last 12 years, with light-emitting diode bulbs that should be good for five years. It features three individual lights that also can be detached for use as flashlights.<\/p>\n
The kit also was a good fit for the Navajo venture. During a pilot project on 12 residences near Second Mesa in June, they found another need.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were running their trucks and burning through a lot of gas to recharge their cellphones,\u201d Joe Choquette said. \u201cThere\u2019s an easy attachment for the solar kit that will allow them to recharge their phones with the solar panel, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only did they include the cords for cellphone charging in their new installations, they returned to the pilot project homes to deliver them, too.<\/p>\n
\u2018Like charity crack\u2019<\/p>\n
Rotary runs on a fiscal year that begins July 1. Determined to proceed with the solar light project in a larger way, the club applied for matching grants for 2013-14 through District 5470, which covers western and southern Colorado, and the Rotary International Foundation. It also convinced the Rotary Club of Durango to join, giving it more leverage for the grants.<\/p>\n
Now, about 17 people from both local clubs have done two full-scale installations, with more planned in the spring. The remoteness of the homes means a team of four is lucky to get four or five solar lights installed a day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not rural like Durango West rural,\u201d Lauro said. \u201cIt can take an hour to get to each home from a paved road. It definitely takes four-wheel-drive. We use local guides because there are no road signs, no addresses, no way of knowing where you\u2019re going beyond \u2018Turn here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul and Jackie Beasley, who own Tile and Light Art of Durango, are not acting only as sponsors for the project \u2013 they\u2019ve gone out on the two installation runs this fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so beautiful, and we\u2019re going places where you couldn\u2019t imagine going on your own,\u201d Paul Beasley said. \u201cWe\u2019re getting back what we\u2019re giving and then some. Everybody should go out at least twice a year. It\u2019s like charity crack.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018No more headaches\u2019<\/p>\n
Choosing which homes will get the lights requires the judgment of Solomon. The Rotarians are depending on social workers at the chapter houses in remote areas to identify either elders or families with school-aged children who most need them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re driving by homes and not stopping,\u201d Paul Beasley said. \u201cI asked, \u2018Shouldn\u2019t we be installing them there, too?\u2019 The guide said, \u2018We\u2019re hoping you\u2019ll do that home next year.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rotarians have heard countless stories about how the lights already have changed lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach and every home has its story,\u201d Tim Guill said. \u201cI talked to two little girls, Shonie and Shoshone Williams, near Navajo Mountain. Shonie said, \u2018The lights are important to me because now I won\u2019t get headaches.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Guill asked Shoshone what she meant.<\/p>\n
\u201cShonie gets headaches when she has to do her homework by candlelight,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Walt Duhaime has installed the lights both in Nepal and on the reservation.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter where you are, every person is so thankful, and you can tell they need it,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are three lights, and one woman told us to put one light over her daughter\u2019s desk and one over her son\u2019s desk because they needed to study. Then the last one could go in her kitchen area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the weavers wanted the lights near their looms, so they could work longer.<\/p>\n
That has led the Rotarians to understand the lights may have a positive impact on many families\u2019 financial situations as well as quality of life. Not only will they allow the craftspeople to increase their output, the families will be spending much less on batteries, kerosene, diesel and gasoline.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe arrived to find one home locked,\u201d LeGrand said. \u201cThe woman was off having a baby, but she was on the phone telling us where to put the lights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boucher was interviewed for a story in The Rotarian, the club\u2019s national publication, which ran in August. Not only has it drawn interest and money, but clubs near other tribal reservations with the same challenges are thinking about adopting the project for their neighbors.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Durango Daybreak Rotarians are planning their next installation trips in the spring, once the roads become passable again after the winter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s 45 down, 15,955 to go,\u201d Lauro said. \u201cThe Navajo Nation is working on electrifying more homes, but there are some we can see will never have electricity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bob Conrad said the project epitomizes Rotary\u2019s mission of \u201cService Above Self.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis kind of project is really how Rotary works,\u201d he said. \u201cB.J.\u2019s involvement with the elder project helped us learn what was needed. And I remember when Rick brought it up, the committee didn\u2019t really understand it and didn\u2019t get excited. It took Rick\u2019s tenacity and commitment to make it work, but now we get it.\u201d<\/p>\n
abutler@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n Before Durango Daybreak Rotary Club had even dreamed of its solar light project on the Navajo Reservation, eight members were planning a solar light project in a remote area of Nepal. To learn more about Durango Daybreak Rotary Club and its Navajo solar light project, visit www.durangodaybreakrotary.org or the club\u2019s Facebook page at http:\/\/facebook.com\/durangodaybreak. solar illumination to Navajos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":122869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[13,856,6349],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-122868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-navajo-county","tag-rotary"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122868"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=122868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018Journey to the Sky\u2019 chronicles Nepal project<\/h4>\n
\n \u201cWe were in the faraway northwest of Nepal, a long way from Annapurna and the Everest trekking circuits,\u201d Joe Williams wrote for a documentary about the venture, which took place in June.
\n The documentary, \u201cJourney to the Sky,\u201d created by longtime Inside Durango TV producer Rich Fletcher, is available on the Rotary Club\u2019s Facebook page.
\n The target population in the Humla Province is ranked 74th out of 75 areas in the world for the worst conditions for education, sanitation, empowerment of women and the ability to earn more than subsistence wages, the group learned during its preparation.
\n In a collaboration with the Nepal Trust, the Rotary International Foundation and Rotary clubs from Nepal, Argentina and Ireland, their plan was to trek and install 167 solar light systems in teahouses along the route through the heart of the Himalayas.
\n \u201cBeing businessmen, we saw we could reduce respiratory problems and improve economic conditions in the teahouses,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThey are dependent on dung fires and small kerosene lamps.\u201d
\n The group doesn\u2019t know how many miles they hiked, but most of the trip was straight up, down steep slopes or along cliffs with drops of thousands of feet.
\n \u201cThey only measure in hours,\u201d said Walt Duhaime, who went on the trip. \u201cThat will take you six hours, they\u2019d say. There were times we crossed active landslide fields that were still moving, others where we had to spot each other to go when we didn\u2019t see falling rocks.\u201d
\n Williams also vividly described the experience.
\n \u201cFive hours of trail and nine kits installed,\u201d he said about June 15. \u201cIt was so steep, all you could see was the rock in front of your face as you take a step up.\u201d
\n The next day was 7\u00bd hours on the trail.
\n \u201cIt was raining nonstop,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t find a dry place to camp. We were 100 percent wet, inside and out.\u201d
\n The trip was made more complicated by the fact that an extremely destructive monsoon came through the area while they were there, killing hundreds along its route in India, Nepal and Tibet. Two large groups, one of Indian pilgrims and another of Russian trekkers, were stranded by rock and mudslides, delaying the group\u2019s departure from the high country.
\n But none of the hardships detracted from the value of the trip.
\n \u201cThe very first light we installed, the lady had a ring in her nose and a big smile,\u201d Duhaime said, \u201cshe was putting scarves around our necks and was serving us tea. She was so elated to be getting that light.\u201d
\n abutler@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\nTo Donate<\/h4>\n
\n To book a presentation about the project for your organization, call Kristi Barnett at 799-4271.
\n To donate to the project, checks may be sent to Durango Daybreak Rotary Club, P.O. Box 4149, Durango, CO 81302.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"