29/04/2021
This could be anyone's story
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FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT
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December 1, 2012, we were out of our house, a local electricity company representative with his es**rts of policemen came and took our analogue meter and replaced it with a digital meter.
At that time, our house was locked. After few days, we were shocked and dismayed to receive a letter indicating that we need to pay Meralco an amount of P 89,495.35 under the name of my mother (who passed away in December 2009). The explanation was that our old meter was defective and the seal was broken, that we were underbilled in the previous months. This can not be true because we have been paying our monthly dues on time for many years even if M****** failed to maintain the required periodic check-up and maintenance of our meter.
Not to mention that the meter reader never told us that our meter seal was broken during his monthly reading.
By February 2013, a representative of the same company came, again with his es**rt of policemen and took the digital meter again and cut the electricity.
At that time, Carina who was not into making solar kits yet was afflicted with hyperthyrodism, which makes her heat-intolerant. She suffered the days and nights without light and ventilation. After a few weeks, she decided to take things into her own hands. She produced her first solar kit using an old car battery connected to a solar panel--the sun as an alternative source of energy for house lighting, mobile charging and to power the electric fan, which she converted into a solar-powered one.
To produce more solar kits, she went around looking solar kit parts sellers, engineers and technicians. Though she said she "could not make heads and tails of the explanation," she had the gut feel that she could learn if she tries harder. She did her own research and began her experimentation journey. She read up on the subject and searched online. After a month, she began to gather readily available materials required to create the first Ilaw ng Tahanan-Solar Women PH prototype of the portable solar energy kit. Most of the components are from used household items: telephone wires, computer and printer cables, keyboards, mouse, USBs, auxiliary fan, paper clips, scissors, jars, car batteries, car lights and LED strips.
Then followed one fumbling experiment after another trying to put these materials together into a solar kit. She "lost count of mistakes and failures," the costliest of which was connecting her netbook to a less-than-perfect solar kit prototype. The netbook was seriously damaged but not beyond repair.
"Now I am more than confident. I know that I can make my own portable solar kit anytime. I can also help others who do not have access to electricity and those who want to save from their electric bills and earn a living."
By the way, she decided to file a case against the electric company, at the Energy Regulatory Commission last February 2014. The hearing lasted for almost four years and currently still waiting for the decision. In the meantime, Carina and her team of Ilaw ng Tahanan-Solar Women PH continue to serve the community by giving free solar kits to the most-in-need families and teaching other women, families, community groups and even government and non-government organizations how to make their own solar kits. Carina and her team provides the training for free and only earn from the sales of solar kits parts that they sell at affordable and community-friendly prices.
