The International Forum

NRECA International Haiti Project to Air on PBS Show

By Hannah Kamenetsky

Electrification project resulted from years of co-op donations and volunteer work.

A short documentary about NRECA International’s electrification project in Pignon, Haiti, is scheduled to air July 7 on PBS’ “Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria,” a new program that focuses on global issues from politics to poverty.

After seven years of planning and collecting donations of equipment and money, several electric co-ops and local community leaders, in partnership with NRECA International Ltd. and the NRECA International Foundation, brought lights to downtown Pignon in February.

“The project is a testament to the generosity of U.S. co-ops, which have provided the vast majority of the material, equipment, money and labor that has built this small distribution system,” said Eric Gibbs, manager, NRECA International, explaining why NRECA International chose to send a film crew to Pignon.

The inauguration ceremony was the culmination of a project launched in 1998 that involved establishing the Cooperative Electricité de Pignon and constructing a generation facility with the help and expertise of dozens of U.S. co-op volunteers.

It was spearheaded by Mike Callies, an engineering technician who works with Minnesota Valley Electric Co-op, Jordan. He had visited Pignon with Hosean International Ministries, run by local pastor Caleb Lucien. When Callies learned from Lucien about the lack of electricity, he decided to help.

Producers of “Foreign Exchange” heard about the Pignon electrification project and decided it would complement a studio discussion on global poverty planned for the July 7 show, said Stephen Sapienza, senior producer. “We thought it would be good to show people wiring electricity in one of the poorest countries of the world,” he said.

The crew from NRECA spent three days in Pignon earlier this year, filming the town and its 30,000 inhabitants.

“I hope that the PBS coverage will illustrate the incredibly positive, life-changing effect that safe, reliable electric power can have in developing nations,” said Patrick Lavigne, NRECA’s manager, media relations, who oversaw the film crew. “The community of Pignon is like so many others that America’s electric co-ops have worked to electrify over the past half-century—full of promise, but short on resources and technical expertise.”

NRECA CEO Glenn English said, “By committing time and resources to these projects, NRECA members and the association’s International Programs provide hope where little previously existed.”

NRECA International has submitted a $2.5 million proposal to the U.S. Agency for International Development to expand the project to bring electricity to the rest of Pignon. Gibbs said that recent unrest in Haiti, however, may delay the project.