Cooperative Living August 2019 - 8

LAURA EMERY PHOTO
Co-op Crews to Bring Power - and Hope
BoliviaBound | by Steven Johnson, Staff Writer
his much is certain about the result
of a trip to Bolivia that a group of
electric cooperative lineworkers
will take in September.
It will change lives.
And not just the lives of
Bolivians in small
communities around
Oruro, parts of which
have subsisted without
electricity for years.
The journey will
transform the 15
lineworkers from
eight co-ops in
Virginia and Maryland.
" The main reason
we're going is to electrify
villages and it's going
to change those people's
lives forever. And it will
change the lives of the
guys who are going forever, "
says John Medved, manager
of safety training for the
Virginia, Maryland & Delaware
Association of Electric Cooperatives
(VMDAEC) and team leader for the project.
" The feeling you get when you turn on
somebody's electricity for the very first
time ... It's very surreal. You're awestruck. "
United We Light: Project Bolivia represents
the first overseas electrification project of
the Virginia, Maryland & Delaware
Association of Electric Cooperatives. It's
being coordinated with the National Rural
T
Electric Cooperative Association's (NRECA)
International division, which arranges for
volunteer teams of co-ops to bring power
to unserved parts of the world.
" For more than 50 years we've worked
to bring power to people, and there's still
a lot to do, " says Dan Waddle, NRECA
International senior vice president. " Our
members consistently demonstrate
the willingness to help us fulfill
our mission, and for that we are
grateful and proud to call
them our partners. "
Medved knows about
the emotional impact of
seeing darkness become
light. He experienced it
in 2015 as a
lineworker at
Shenandoah Valley
Electric Cooperative,
when he was a lastminute
addition to a
crew bringing power
to an impoverished
community in Haiti.
" The village we were
working in had no power
for seven years, " Medved
explains. " So there were
kids there who had never
seen electricity. "
That three-week adventure taught
him how people back home take
electricity for granted. " The people in
Haiti would be so excited to have what we
routinely discard, " he says. " I got so used
to it that I felt guilty for leaving. I had a
harder transition when I came home than
I did going there. "
United We Light: Project Bolivia will
build on the work NRECA has conducted
" What peaked my interest is being able to use my trade to help
others. We often take electricity for granted in our country, but
I'm really looking forward to being able to bring electricity to
communities in Bolivia that have never experienced it. "
Craig Loving
Northern Neck Electric Cooperative
6 | Cooperative Living | August 2019
co-opliving.com
http://www.co-opliving.com

Cooperative Living August 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living August 2019

Cooperative Living August 2019 - 1
Cooperative Living August 2019 - 2
Cooperative Living August 2019 - 3
Cooperative Living August 2019 - 4
Cooperative Living August 2019 - 5
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