Solidarity has no borders. Luces para Aprender Uruguay expands to Africa
Luces para aprender
Project
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Since 2014, the Elecnor Foundation has been leading the ambitious Luces para Aprender (Lights to Learn) project in Uruguay, focused on bringing electricity and the Internet to schools in the country. Thanks to this project, 85 rural schools that did not have access to the power grid were equipped with solar generation and Internet systems. With this initiative, Uruguay is the only country in Latin America to have electricity in 100% of its rural schools.
UTE, OEI and the Elecnor Foundation have provided two orphanages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with two photovoltaic installations removed from the schools benefiting from the second phase of the Luces para Aprender project in Uruguay that have already been connected to the national power grid.
These two installations provide power to the Amour and Turisemi orphanages, which are home to 150 children, and whose facilities do not have the basic electrical equipment needed for a minimum of comfort and best possible learning opportunities.
Uruguay's Ministry of Defence was entrusted with transferring the installations through a peace mission with the UN, involving the Blue Helmets of the Uruguayan Army. The Elecnor Foundation provided soldiers with the necessary training and preparation to install the solar PV equipment and to train the schools on how to subsequently operate the systems.
2019 National Energy Efficiency Award
This National Prize is an initiative of Uruguay's Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining to draw attention to its institutional commitment and to promote investment in the development of new projects. It recognises the institutions, agencies and companies concerned for their efforts and achievements in the saving and use of electricity in their different sectors of activity. A rural school in Cerro Largo, a city school in Minas (Lavalleja) and a secondary school in Colonia, together with the Montevideo Municipal Council and several private sector firms all received awards in 2019.
On this occasion, the Elecnor Foundation, UTE and OEI presented an Energy Efficiency Award under the Luces para Aprender programme.
