A Bulldozer for Pignon: How a Kentucky Electric Cooperative Is Bringing a Brighter Future to Haiti
(NRECA International, December 2006)

The East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC) has made tremendous contributions to economic development in Haiti. The NRECA International Foundation recently got to speak with Kevin Osbourn, EKPC’s Manager of Communications, about EKPC’s involvement.

Mr. Osbourn said he was first moved to get involved in Haiti by some members of his church who had returned from a mission trip in the rural Haitian town of Ronquitte. The missionaries were so inspiring, Mr. Osbourne said, that he too wanted to help out in the developing world.

Mr. Osbourn went to see Roy Palk, EKPC’s CEO, to see how EKPC could get involved in helping others in developing countries. They got in touch with the NRECA International Foundation and discovered that there was a rural electrification project going on in Pignon, Haiti – just 12 miles away from the town of Ronquitte and Mr. Osbourn’s friends from church!

In Pignon, Mike Callies of the Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative (MVEC) was coordinating an effort to bring electricity to the impoverished area. Though Mr. Callies and other volunteers were working hard, additional funding was going to be necessary if they were going to expand their operations; so many area families were without power. EKPC saw the perfect opportunity to act. They were going to help Haiti’s people and economic development by funding rural electrification efforts in Pignon.

Through all the work he was doing to help Haiti, Mr. Osbourn came into contact with a Pignon pastor named Caleb Lucien. The two quickly became allies in improving the infrastructural situation in the area. Both believed that electricity was an essential part of the solution, but that better roads were a necessary part as well. Poor roads had already made grid installation an unnecessarily difficult task. It took about four hours by car just to travel the twelve miles from Ronquitte to Pignon.

Mr. Lucien expressed to Mr. Osbourn that having a bulldozer could vastly improve the road situation in Pignon. Mr. Osbourn wasted no time in taking action.

When asked how he was able to raise money for such an expensive item, Mr. Osbourn laughed, “I just put it on my to-do list!” He then added, more seriously, that the effort “really was a series of miracles.”

Mr. Osbourn, with the help of many generous donors, managed to pull the effort together beautifully. A Christian charity, several U.S. cooperatives, and the NRECA International Foundation contributed thousands of dollars to the cause. Cumberland Valley Electric in Kentucky also contributed a great deal by agreeing to house and maintain the bulldozer for months while the shipping logistics were being finalized.

Mr. Osbourn is optimistic about what the bulldozer will be able to do for Pignon. It was inspirational enough for him to see the reactions of Pignon residents when they first got electricity. “The crowd was so excited when those lights came on,” he said, “the kids were jumping up and down.” He also described how students would sit under streetlamps after it got dark so they could study, in the hope of having a brighter future. The bulldozer, however, will help build even more infrastructural capacity and opportunity to the region. “If a bulldozer could just straighten out the roads,” Mr. Osbourn said, “that’ll help 30,000 people … We can make a huge difference.”