February 2010

• "They speak the same work"
• On a Mission to Zambia
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“They speak the same work”

As electric co-ops celebrate 75 years of providing affordable electricity for rural Americans, another story unfolds globally, echoing the cooperative success story. Volunteers from electric co-ops across the nation are spreading rural electrification overseas, sharing light and hope with war-torn or forgotten communities.

“When I told my daughter, Katie, she couldn’t believe some places in the world don’t have electricity,” said Craig Larkin, a lineman from Missouri’s Cuivre River Electric Cooperative who spent several weeks lighting up a city in war-torn Southern Sudan. “If we can help them out, that’s an awesome thing.”

NRECA International Programs, a division of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, since 1962 has affected over 100 million lives in more than 40 developing nations by building safe and reliable electricity distribution systems. Funding for this global goodwill effort comes in part from the NRECA International Foundation, a registered charitable organization partnering with electric cooperatives in the U.S.

NRECA International Programs doesn’t simply bring American linemen into a country for a few weeks, then pull up stakes. Staff members and volunteers teach locals how to build and maintain simple power grids and run their own utilities.

“The ultimate rewards we see are the long-term benefits,” explains Guatemala volunteer Chris Stephens, manager of engineering for the Georgia co-op Coweta-Fayette EMC. “We’re sharing information and technologies from our linemen to their linemen. They may not speak the same language, but they speak the same work.”

The initiative also introduces communities to the co-op business model and shows them what electric power can do for schools, health clinics, farms and local economies. Today, NRECA International Programs projects are under way in Bangladesh, Republic of the Philippines, India, Bolivia, Haiti, Senegal, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Southern Sudan, Yemen, Nigeria, and Guatemala.

Over the years, North Carolina’s electric cooperatives have sent volunteers from linemen to board members, as well as equipment such as vehicles and generators, to many of the International Programs projects.

Through the Sister Cooperative Partnership Program, three North Carolina co-ops have relationships with Latin American electric co-ops: Blue Ridge Electric (Lenoir) with Cooperativa Rural de Electrificacion in Bolivia, Carteret-Craven Electric (Morehead City) with Coopesantos R.R. in Costa Rica, and EnergyUnited (Statesville) with Cooperativa Electrica Riberalta in Bolivia. After staff and directors from Coopesantos visited Carteret-Craven Electric to study strategic planning, finance and logistics, their communication director said, “We made friends instead of just learning.”

To watch videos of linemen volunteering across the globe or to make a donation supporting the program, visit NRECAFoundation.coop.

—Megan McKoy, NRECA