Bottle lights to light up 1,000 calamity-hit homes

One thousand households in calamity-hit Bohol province, Tacloban city  and northern Cebu will be illuminated with solar-powered bottle lights before the year ends.

The device is assembled from a  1.5 liter PET bottle, a solar panel, circuit board, LED light and a PVC pipe.

Engineering students of the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) will assemble the units.

Production  will be undertaken through the Liter of Light program of the My Shelter Foundation, in coordination with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda).

“The  sweat equity of the students  made it possible to make 100 light bottles in one day,” said Illac Diaz,  My Shelter Foundation executive director, in a press conference in Cebu City.

Students demonstrated how to put the bottle light together based on a diagram provided by Tesda.

Diaz said they aim to finish 1,000  bottle lights within two weeks and deliver them to  local government units in the three calamity-hit areas:  800 for Bohol and north Cebu and 200 units for Tacloban City.

Each device  provides three to five watts of light for up to six hours at night.

During the day, the small solar panels are exposed to sunlight to recharge the battery.

“We were able to apply our theories in class when it came to troubleshooting the solar panel and ways to produce other sources of energy,” said senior  Electrical Engineering student John Monzolin.

Diaz said the foundation plans to conduct a training session  in Tesda for select groups from the disaster-hit areas to teach sustainable  technology.

“We can be resilient not only in strength but also in skills. We are going to rebuild using our innovativeness and creativity,” said Diaz.

Tesda training

Tesda will  also hold a training session for carpentry, masonry, plumbing and electrical skills  in Tacloban and northern Cebu next week to teach residents to rebuild their own houses.

This is Tesda’s contribution in the early stages of rehabilitation, said Urdaneta.

The program is in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the provincial government.