Electricity powers our refrigerators, our laptops, our lights, and so much more, yet we often take it for granted. For many of us, it’s hard to imagine what life without electricity would look like, but it’s the only life people living in La Cuchilla have ever known. On Monday, August 17, we are asking YOU to help us Power the Change, bringing electricity to La Cuchilla by donating $10 and then asking 10 others in your community of friends, family, and coworkers to do the same.
Having power for the first time will give people in La Cuchilla access to necessities such as lights and refrigeration, and will also give people access to opportunity: better education, better health, better jobs. Meet just a few of the many people in La Cuchilla who will benefit from your generosity. Read their stories below, then make a small donation that can make a huge difference.
“What we currently struggle with the most is keeping our food cold. We buy ice packs from the nearby community so that we can have our cheese, sour cream, and meat without the food going bad. It is about 30 minutes walking every day. Having electricity would mean that everyone would live a more harmonious life and we would have a safer community, since we would be able to see everyone at night and be able to stay away from certain animals. It would also mean that my school would be better since I wouldn’t have to worry about finishing studying before it gets dark. Right now, we have to use our spare candle just for me to study.”
“The main thing that we struggle with is the lack of light. I have so many stories of me wanting to grab a piece of clothing from the floor and finding snakes or getting bitten by scorpions. Once, our entire family had to take a shower all together since we were using the charge of the phone to shed a light, as we would shower at night. My husband saw snakes on the place where we were going to shower, and if he did not have the light of his phone, we probably would have been bitten by them. Having electricity would mean that we would have a marvelous life. We would even have more water because the current pump works with gas and when we get electricity we would have it for longer, and that makes me so excited!”
“I am excited to have electricity! We sweat at night and I want to sleep more comfortably without mosquitoes and not waking up not sweaty. I am excited because we will be playing more at night and we can stay up a little late when it gets dark. Having electricity would mean us playing more with each other and other kids at night and also spending more time with our parents when they tell us stories.”
“I don’t know what having electricity is like. I have lived 54 years of my life without electricity, which is since I was born. I struggle the most with feeding my family well. Since I am a little old, I can’t be running errands all the time and I need to buy food for only the day that I will be eating. I can't buy meat for tomorrow. It has been tough and I am not even used to sleeping with a fan. When I have visited my family members in other places, I can’t even sleep with a fan since I am not used to that. I am excited about getting used to it -- not caring about mosquitoes around you, or suffering all the heat in the summer. I am excited about this because it means that we will have a better life and we will have things that will last forever.”