Foundation, Georgia EMC Help Bring Progress to Guatemalan Towns
(International Foundation, November 30, 2009)

Progress has come slowly to the verdant lowlands of west-central Guatemala. Lack of infrastructure and decades of civil war have left parts of the region largely unchanged from the days when the Maya ruled there more than a thousand years ago.

Not so for the villages of Ixcan ("EESH-khan"), a municipality near the border with Mexico. Over the past decade, efforts by the local electric authority, the NRECA International Foundation and a collection of Georgia electric co-ops have helped this ancient region set the standard for progress in rural Guatemala.

This summer, NRECA International sponsored a team of four volunteers from the Electric Membership Cooperatives (EMC) of Georgia to bring electricity from the national grid to the towns of El Esfuerzo and Santa Catarina-El Rosario. The project, which lasted from September 12 to 26, was the third NRECA volunteer trip to the region.

While there, the volunteer linemen and local workers from the Municipal Utility for Rural Electrification (EMRE) had an ambitious schedule. The crew first ran a single-phase distribution line to El Esfuerzo, a recently created community expected one day to house up to 1,000 people. Currently about 43 families reside there. Next, the team built a distribution grid for the town of Santa Catarina, connecting 48 families who had had no electricity until then. Finally, they moved to Playa Grande, the municipal capital of Ixcan, where they set poles for a street lighting system on the city's main entrance.

"It turned out pretty good," said Ronnie Browning, a lineman with Walton EMC who was on the trip. "We got a pretty good bit of work done considering what we had to work with."

The people of El Esfuerzo and Santa Catalina are predominantly indigenous Q’eqchí, who survive mainly on subsistence farming. Project organizers hope access to electricity will lead to economic development and improved health, education and security for these impoverished communities.

"The people were really excited," said Browning, who also participated in a volunteer trip to Guatemala in 2008. "I like seeing the people's faces when those lights come on. If I get the opportunity, I'll go again in a heartbeat."

Equipment for the Ixcan project was financed by a $12,000 grant from the Foundation as well as proceeds from an annual turkey shoot fundraiser held by the Georgia co-ops.