Division celebrates Golden Anniversary
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eginning this month, cooperatives around the globe will celebrate International Year of Cooperatives. At the same time, NRECA International Programs, a division of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), will mark 50 years of helping developing countries provide rural residents with safe, reliable, and affordable electric service. “International Year of Cooperatives will provide us with a great platform for advancing the cause of those still living without electricity,” says Ingrid Hunsicker, manager of international program development for the NRECA International Foundation, a charitable organization that partners with electric cooperatives in the United States to bring power and economic development to rural villages overseas. Since its creation on Nov. 1, 1962, NRECA International Programs has assisted with electrification efforts that have resulted in increased agricultural productivity, millions of new jobs, as well as an enhanced quality of life for more than 100 million people in 40-plus nations. NRECA International Programs projects are currently under way in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, the Philippines, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Yemen. Despite progress, much works remains. “Almost 66 percent of the world’s population still lacks electricity or must depend on unreliable and unsafe power,” Hunsicker emphasizes. 4
| OCTOBER 2011 | Alabama Living
Volunteer linemen Phil Hogan and Danny Derry from Grundy Electric Cooperative in Missouri prepare a utility pole in Yei, Sudan as a group of local students watch, spellbound. “That’s where the foundation comes in — it adds value to NRECA International Programs initiatives.” When natural disasters happen, NRECA International Foundation is able to jump in and send aid, such as when much of Haiti’s electrical infrastructure was destroyed by an earthquake in 2010. Because conditions vary so widely, NRECA International Programs has adopted the slogan, “Electrifying the world … one village at a time.” The outreach relies on the time-tested electric cooperative business model — giving individuals, many for the first time, practical experience in democratic decision-making and free enterprise so they can launch locally driven services.
Best of all, by aggregating small stakeholders into large-enough units to compete in the marketplace, cooperatives expand the critical people-to-people relationships needed to break down bonds of mistrust — a way to tackle terrorism and anti-U.S. sentiment on a grassroots level. “One of the challenges we face in many countries is building a rural business culture,” stresses Hunsicker. “When electric cooperative employees and volunteers from the United States arrive, they outline how to create a business plan, conduct meetings, collect the full amount due from consumers, determine what type of electric generation they should invest in, and everything in between. It’s all about finding out and building on what will work. Through these efforts, we show the best face of not only who we are as electric co-ops but as Americans.”