From Bethel to Burkina Faso: Locals install solar power system in impoverished country

A man works on roof where there are 250 watt solor panels being installed at a primary school. A man works on roof where there are 250 watt solor panels being installed at a primary school. Photo: Mark Estrada / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Mark Estrada / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close From Bethel to Burkina Faso: Locals install solar power system in impoverished country 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

BETHEL - For a long time, students in the village of Roumtenga went to school without lights and without fans for relief from the tropical heat.

But now a school that serves a population of 2,000 in the West African nation of Burkina Faso, where 85 percent of residents lack access to electricity and nearly half live below the poverty line, has solar panels to provide electricity, thanks to two Bethel brothers and their friends.

Frustrated at the lack of action on climate change, Travis and Dylan Wolf created the World Energy Foundation in 2013. The organization underwrites solar power projects in countries that lack acess to energy.

Providing power is the one of the best ways to bring a country out of poverty, said Travis, now a Stamford resident.

“Electricity is really a driver for the economy, because you're helping the schools; you’re helping kids get smarter,” he said. “You’re helping the hospital, you’re helping the people get healthier faster.”

With electricity, the schools can also attract better teachers, Dylan said.

“Then you have a community of well-educated children and they grow up and the idea is they improve their communities themselves,” he said. “It’s a snowball effect.”

Dylan’s friend Salif Kabore, who grew up in Burkina Faso, joined the organization and encouraged them to start in his home country.

Since then, the group has taken three trips to Burkina Faso, most recently at the end of February, installing solar projects at birthing centers and schools in Roumtenga and two other villages. The organization also has projects planned in Honduras and aims to develop connections in Haiti.

Matthew Roberts, a member of the Monroe Rotary Club who has been friends with Dylan since they were 5, told the club about the World Energy Foundation. He encouraged the Monroe, Stamford, Trumbull and New Canaan rotary clubs to raise more than $5,000 to sponsor the installation of solar at a school in Roumtenga, a village in the province of Yako.

“It fell in line with goals that Rotary has, which is improving education and children and women’s health,” Roberts said. “It was a very symbiotic relationship.”

Roberts joined the brothers, Kabore and photographer Mark Estrada, another friend from Bethel, on the February trip. Roberts described how moving it was to see the excitement of the community once the project was finished. He said 500 to 600 people came to see the lights turned on for the first time.

“For some of the kids, it was probably the first time they had seen electricity, the things that are so readily available to us,” he said. “To see someone turn on a light switch for the first time was just amazing.”

Travis said the communities expressed their gratitude by presenting them a gift of live chickens.

“That’s a token of their appreciation,” he said. “It's really symbolic for them, because that's their food and their livelihood, and to give us their food like that, it's a big symbol of partnership and familial bond.”

While the Wolf brothers and Roberts live outside Bethel now, Travis said they still rely on hometown support and are planning a charity run in the area this summer.

“We pull a lot from our community back home to support us and keep the wheels turning,” Travis said. “For us it was a kind of thing that blew up and became bigger than both us and we're just trying to keep it going because it’s something really good that we stumbled upon.”