Tacloban, a city on the Philippine island Leyte, situated in the middle of the Pacific. Just at the edge of a river, is the children’s village “SOS Children” located. A real village with a.o.a community house. In 2013, a typhoon tidal wave very heavily damaged most of the buildings.
Bob Thielemans (ENGIE Benelux) was on site to help and support the local population. Very fast the idea of an electric project, to create a safe place and protect the children during typhoons and floods, arose.
To start with, a solid community house was built. As the electricity network is frequently out of order during typhoons, a battery operated emergency installation and 16 photovoltaic panels of 250 Wp were installed. This mission was realised in December 2015 by Jos Goovaert (Electrabel) and Jason Fulgencio (Cofely Philippines) with the assistance of Rodolfo Mendiola, Jr (SOS Children Village Philippines) en Gabriel Guariño (on-job training).
This installation provides electricity for up to 2 days for the lighting, two refrigerators, a hydrophone pump, an emergency radio-transmitter and several small electrical devices.
