My Shelter Foundation, A Liter of Light Project 210 Loring St,Pasay City, Metro Manila 1300
Background on MyShelter Foundation During natural disasters, survivors’ immediate needs are food, water, and shelter. Often, people will run to schools or other similar public gathering places in their towns for shelter. These structures are often not built to withstand the elements, and with storms becoming more powerful each year, survivors are often left stranded, or worse, killed when the very buildings where they seek refuge collapse. With power lines down and electricity cut, there is also no safe way to navigate storm-‐affected areas once the sun goes down, putting people, especially the most vulnerable like the elderly, women, and children, in danger. When Typhoon Ondoy hit the Philippines in 2008, it was one of the worst storms on record. This calamity flooded 80% of Manila, leaving many people with no access to basic needs. Working with emergency and humanitarian disaster relief agencies, Illac Diaz launched MyShelter Foundation to design creative solutions to address the needs of those most affected by natural disasters. An urban planner by training, Illac wanted to find a way to provide disaster-‐resistant structures and emergency lighting in the refugee areas where thousands lacked consistent access to proper shelter and electricity. MyShelter Foundation’s mission is to bring sustainable building solutions that are easily replicable, scalable, and locally sourced to the grassroots level, to people who are most in need of low-‐cost, disaster-‐resilient infrastructures. We want to reframe the way people think about solutions to climate change, not as a product of industrialized nations but as a gift that developing countries can share with the rest of the world. Background on Liter of Light MyShelter Foundation’s Liter of Light redesigns solar lighting for the developing world. The simple, two-‐step solar lighting technology creates local jobs, teaches green skills, and empowers local communities. Liter of (Day) Light is a DIY affordable system that allows the sun's rays into homes, schools and public centers for less than US $2, including US $1 in net profits. Using recycled plastic soda bottles, 10 milliliters of bleach, and distilled water, the bottle is placed through galvanized steel sheet roofs common to many developing countries. Sunlight refracts through the bottle and bends to light the space below with 55 watts of brightness, saving an average of US $10 in electricity bills a month and 200 kilos of carbon a year. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-‐Fpsw_yYPg) The second phase of the program provides training kits to cooperatives to teach them how to build simple night lighting systems by hand. Micro-‐solar panels or solarettes, widely available in the Philippines, are assembled by hand, and other electronic parts, easily accessible in most cities, are locally assembled. With a simple circuit panel drill and soldering, an upgrade night solar LED light and MOBILE charger is built and inserted into the already installed day light, providing 10 additional hours of power at night at a cost of US $10, while saving 350 kilos in carbon emissions. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQCHvO2H0_0) PHONE 09189403513
FAX (02)8339815
WEB info@aliteroflight.org
The Liter of Light began with one carpenter, one solar bottle daylight, and one paid installation. Through social media and easy replication by local partners, this movement has spread. 140,000 households in the Philippines, and 350,000 homes in over 15 countries now benefit from what is arguably the cheapest bulb in the world. The Liter of Light creates livelihoods for people like Demetrio Bukas, an unemployed carpenter in Laguna province who installed over 1000 Liters of Light in his community. Children in Demetrio’s hometown can study in healthy environments; women have started small businesses; and families have more income to pay for critical needs. By training local communities to create cheap and sustainable solar technology, MyShelter Foundation empowers the disenfranchised in the Philippines to address a pressing problem that hampers their quality of life. Instead of relying on international aid or the government during natural calamities, the beneficiaries touched by the Liter of Light recognize that they have the power and tools to improve their own well-‐being. Local communities have regained access and ownership of the technologies that are improving their quality of life. Most significantly, by helping individuals to become positive sources of change, we are challenging them to come up with even better solutions to solve the energy crisis in their community. The Liter of Light is helping to end energy poverty one bottle at a time. Triple Bottom Line • Safety: prevents fires and inhalation of toxic fumes from kerosene lamps. • Environmental: Reuses discarded plastic bottles from being thrown away and upcycled to a daylight system in 10 minutes. • Sustainable: Manufacturing and parts are all local and abundant • Income-‐generating: each entrepreneur funded to build solar lights has an average of 11,000 homes / clients a year. We’ve trained over 370 grassroots solar entrepreneurs in 20 months. • Open-‐source: In 20 months, Liter of Light has installed 350,000 lights around the world through a decentralized, open-‐source, and crowd-‐sourced system. • Carbon-‐offsetting: WWF (Philippines has computed the carbon emissions restricted emissions :(http://www.co2list.org/files/carbon.htm) o Carbon footprint for the manufacture of one incandescent bulb = 0.45 kg CO₂. o Electricity consumption is approximately 0.77 kg CO₂ per kW·∙h, so a 50W bulb that runs for, let's say, 14 hours a day for 30 days releases 16.17 kg CO₂ a month, or nearly 200 kg a year. o Moreover, approximately 90% of the power consumed by an incandescent bulb is emitted as heat rather than visible light.