Cooperatives without borders

In the late 1930s, rural communities in the United States experienced something for the first time — electric power. Neighbors formed their own cooperatives to make electricity not only a possibility, but also a means of prosperity for their farms, houses, schools, hospitals and businesses.

Cooperatives later extended the same energy to help communities around the world that had no electric power. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed an agreement of cooperation between the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), to create NRECA International. Since then, the 250 rural electrification programs that NRECA International has established in Latin America, Africa and Asia have provided more than 110 million people in more than 43 developing countries with access to safe, reliable and affordable electricity. These efforts continue to be made possible with generous funding and support from USAID and multilateral development banks.

U.S. electric cooperatives also have joined forces with NRECA International. With support from co-op leaders, volunteers and staff, NRECA International has constructed and upgraded power lines and trained local power utility staff to help build institutional capacity and ensure these utilities experience long term success.

Currently, NRECA International is helping more than 42,000 people in Haiti, 7,000 in Tanzania, 4 million in the Philippines and more than 500,000 in Uganda. Behind these numbers are families and communities who are beginning a better life. Streets are made safer by streetlights; studying and reading isn’t limited by daylight; doctors can utilize more equipment and access more medicine thanks to refrigeration; and irrigation techniques have improved with the help of powered water pumps.

Helping Haiti

As the dust settled in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince on the evening of January 12, 2010, a landscape of devastation began to emerge. The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck just before 5 p.m. had reduced most of the densely populated city and surrounding villages to rubble. Some 230,000 people died. Another 300,000 were injured. And more than a million were left homeless.

NRECA International responded immediately to reach the ruined city by mobilizing a highly specialized team of relief and restoration services experts. The team supported reconstruction activities with Electricité d’Haiti (EdH), Haiti’s national electric utility, and was part of a multi-national relief and restoration effort.

The team focused first on restoring power to critical facilities such as hospitals, relief centers and refugee camps. Less than a month later, an EdH-NRECA team had restored a 69-kilovolt line, the first reenergized grid power since the quake.

Following the success of the emergency response team, EdH requested that NRECA International continue its support. Under the sponsorship of the World Bank, the team coordinated reconstruction efforts and mentored EdH engineering personnel, including providing safety training to more than 100 local linemen.