Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
April 29, 2011
2011 IDEAS and MIT GLOBAL CHALLENGE AWARDS CELEBRATION
Monday, May 2 – 7:00pm at KRESGE AUDITORIUM on the MIT campus in Cambridge MA
CONGRATULATIONS to the 2011 IDEAS Competition and MIT Global Challenge teams! A record 45 MIT student-led teams entered their innovative public service ideas addressing underserved needs in water, sanitation, agriculture, education and much more. Many of undergraduate and graduate students have been hard at work for the last eight months to enter this year. The Salud del Sol and MIT IIH collaborative Solar-Powered Autoclave is one of the teams.
Meet all the teams at 7:00pm in the lobby. Celebrate their work. Learn which teams will win part of the up to $150,000 in awards this year. We’ll be joined by President Susan Hockfield, our keynote speaker Dr. Akhtar Badshah (MIT Alum) and other special guests.
October 11, 2010
Lauren, Matt, and Erin are busy preparing for traveling to Nicaragua at the end of November. Check back for details!
June 19, 2010
Today, June 19, 2010, is Solar Day!
Salud del Sol, Inc. is a proud partner of Solar Day. Solar Day is an international day that was designed to bring awareness about solar energy, clean technology, and sustainability. Visit http://www.solarday.com/ for more information and to find out ways you can get involved.
June 16, 2010
Grupo Fenix offers hands-on courses, workshops and service trips for individuals interested in broadening their knowledge of renewable energy and sustainable development. Stay in a rural village in Nicaragua while working side-by-side local community members as they teach you about practical solar energy technologies such as solar cookers and photovoltaic systems. The July Solar Culture Course is now available for registration and includes the building of a solar cooker oven, a solar battery charger, and the installation of a PV system within the local community. Course fee is $750 and includes all expenses after arrival in Nicaragua. For more information email thegrupofenix@gmail.com.
June 16, 2010
Come spend a month volunteering in northern rural Nicaragua in the community of Totogalpa in a reforestation bridage hosted by Grupo Fenix and Las Mercedes. Live with the local rural families, assist the community in reforestation projects, all while learning about their Solar Culture. We have 2000 trees ready to plant, each pine can provide enough oxygen for two people. Volunteers will also get the chance to learn local artisan crafts, traditional folklorico dances, enjoy hiking, and a visit to the beautiful Somoto Canyon. Volunteer fees are $500 + a $50 registration fee and include all expenses except for flight, for more information and to register, email thegrupofenix at gmail dot com.
November 30, 2009
From November 30 – December 12, Salud del Sol’s Director of Development, Anna Young, will be participating in the Young Leaders Program of the Global Insitute For Tomorrow, an independent social venture think tank dedicated to advancing understanding of the impacts of globalization.
The Program begins with 4 days of classroom learning in Hong Kong, with participants from around the world, including Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, China and Belgium. Following these classes, participants will travel to Aceh, Indonesia to work in partnership with a local farmers cooperative and the UNDP to create a sustainable business plan for the cooperative.
It will be an incredible experience– check back for updates from Asia!
October 15, 2009
Solar Culture Course in Nicaragua,
hosted by Grupo Fenix
4 -14 January 2010
Come to Nicaragua and engage your head, heart, and hands in the real work of developing countries. Our hands-on courses allow you to be immersed in the daily life of rural Nicaraguans by living with host families and working alongside local community members to create their vision of a model community through renewable energy and sustainable practices.
Discuss the theory behind solar energy and the challenges of development with your instructors and other course participants. Spend your days learning how to construct solar cookers, photovoltaic panels, and installing photovoltaic systems. Laugh along with your host family as you try to recall your high school Spanish, balance water on your head or make tortillas. Most activities and classes are held in the new adobe Solar Center. Housing will be simple, like that of a typical rural Nicaraguan family.
Explore a beautiful country and its culture while learning about renewable energy and sustainable development in the field. Our courses provide a unique travel experience that is educational, rewarding, and fun!
This 11-day course, offered twice a year, has been held by Grupo Fenix since 1999. It is a great introduction to the science and use of appropriate renewable energy technologies such as solar cookers, dryers and photo-voltaic systems. Dr. Richard Komp, an expert from the United States with over 40 years experience working with solar technologies, teaches the technical classes for the January version of this course and the July version is based on his methodology for fabrication of PV panels in developing countries. During this 11 day course participants will:
- Visit Suni Solar, a renewable energy business in Managua started by Grupo Fenix
- Build a solar oven with the local women’s group, the Solar Women of Totogalpa
- Listen to talks on Solar Dryers and Medicinal Plants
- Learn about solar cooking and eat the final product of your class!
- Install a PV system with local solar experts
- Make a solar powered battery charger
Also, the course includes various tourist activities such as a visit to nearby beautiful spots in the mountains of northern Nicaragua. If weather permits, we will spend a day exploring the Somoto Canyon and swimming in its natural pools. Also, at the end of the course we will spend a night at a rustic ecolodge in the Tisey Nature Reserve, which has hiking trails, fields of organic vegetables, a farming community that produces its own specialty cheeses and one of the best panoramic views in the country.
The course fee of $995 includes all food and lodging, with a $50 deposit to be sent to the nonprofit Skyheat Associates at PO Box 184, Harrington ME 04643 before December 15th to insure a place in the course, which has a limit of 15 participants and is often completely full. For more information, please contact thegrupofenix@gmail.com or look on-line at www.grupofenix.org for details of all of our programs.
April 27, 2009
Here’s your chance to learn how to make a solar box cooker using locally available materials! Dr. Richard Komp will be teaching a one-day course at the Woodstock Museum in New York on May 17th. The cost of the course is $25 and includes a power point presentation and lunch. Registration is limited, click here, to RSVP and for more information.
April 20, 2009
This academic year, a team of undergraduate engineers from University of Dayton School of Engineering Design Clinic class, have been researching a system design for the solar autoclave. Their design includes, the solar box cooker, a pressure vessel, and a sterilization indicator. The progress of this team has been incredible!
Friday, April 24 at 8:00am in the Kettering Labs Building at the University of Dayton, the design clinic team will be presenting a culmination of the research. They will also be setting forth future research plans for Daniel Hensel and the field team to implement this summer in Nicaragua. For more information about this presentation, please email daniel.hensel@saluddelsol.org.
April 20, 2009
Earlier this month, Lori Hanna had the opportunity to attend the Global Engagement Summit at Northwestern University on behalf of Salud del Sol, Inc. As you can tell from reading her blog postings, it was an incredible experience, full of personal and organizational growth and an inspiration for us to continue the work of Salud del Sol!
An exciting outcome of the Global Engagement Summit is the GlobalGiving Project Challenge. Sponsored by the GlobalGiving Foundation, the Project Challenge competition gives students two weeks to try to raise at least $4,000 from 50 donors. Organizations that reach $4,000 are allowed to keep their projects on the site to continue to raise funds. The top three projects also receive bonuses totaling $6,000. The Project Challenge is held from April 17 – May 8.
Salud del Sol is incredibly excited and honor to be participating in the GlobalGiving project challenge! The funds raised from this endeavor will support the field research of the solar autoclave this summer in Sabana Grande, Nicaragua. The field team this summer has an incredible opportunity to prototype and test the system design from that the UD Design Clinic team has developed. The research plans for this summer also include, capacity building classes for Las Mujeres Solares on the research and testing of the solar autoclave, as well as classes in marketing and entrepreneurship. Also, once testing has proven the solar autoclave design successful, we will be enlisting the support of local doctors from Nicaragua to begin clinical testing of the solar autoclave to guarantee pathogens are eliminated from the instruments, ensuring complete sterilization.
Please visit our GlobalGiving project page to learn more about how you can support the solar autoclave research this summer!
Subscribe to Salud del Sol- MIT Global Challenge Award Winners May 4, 2011 Bill
- MIT Global Challenge Awards Replay May 3, 2011 Bill
- 2011 IDEAS Competition & MIT Global Challenge Awards Celebration April 29, 2011 Bill