Art, Wind Power & Peru.

This is the subject of Gordon Froud's talk to us last week.  It was very interesting seeing South African Sculpture form the 19th century through to today.  What was more to the point was realising how undervalued it is here compared to overseas.

Gordon spoke briefly about the individual works and also chatted about his own works at the exhibition.  Unfortunately we had no camera at the meeting and my 'phone takes terrible pictures!

We also had a visitor from Malawi, PP A Rasid Jakhura of the Rotary Club of Limbe.  Next time he comes he must give us a talk.






This week
Edward James-Smith will be talking to us about "Costs & Benefits of Wind Power Generation in South Africa".

Edward James-Smith (Consultant, EA Energy Analyses)
MSc Technological and Socio-Economic Planning, BSc Biochemistry

• Electricity markets and market development
• Power system planning
• Integration of variable generation
• Power system economics – investments and the value of electricity
• Policy development and regulation

Edward James-Smith has a strong background in energy policy development, system planning and energy economics.

He has been active on a number of energy projects in Europe, Africa and Asia. These include assisting Work Group 6: Electricity networks in the EU CA-RES programme, wind power policy and system integration in China, policy development and system integration of RE in South Africa, integration of wind power in Denmark, training for the East African Power Pool, energy efficiency regulation in Denmark and South Africa as well as addressing energy poverty issues in Africa and the Balkans.

Edward James-Smith has also participated on a number of research projects under the Danish Public Service Obligation and Nordic Energy Research programmes. These include the Economics of wind power, Impacts of climate change on renewable power production in the Nord Pool region, integration of wind power on islands using flexible demand and representing Denmark on IEA Wind Task 26: Cost of Wind Power.

Selected assignments

• Grid integration of wind power - skills development programme for Eskom - Task Leader
• CA-RES - Concerted Action on the Renewable Energy Sources Directive
• Eastern Africa: Training in cross-border trade for the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP)
• South Africa: Scenario report on costs and benefits of renewable energy in the power system – Task Leader
• South Africa: Technical assistance to the South African National Treasury on introducing IPPs under the REFIT programme
• South Africa: Calculating the levelised cost of wind power for 2011 – Task Leader
• System integration of wind turbines and levelised costs of electricity for generating technologies – Task Leader
• China: Integration of wind power

Professional experience

• January 2007 - : Energy Analyst, Ea Energy Analyses
• August 2005 – December 2006: Energy Analyst, Rambøll 

Education and training  
MSc, Technological and Socio-Economic Planning, Roskilde University, 2005

BSc, Biochemistry & Microbiology, Free State University, 1995

Retired doctor tackles health care, education in Peru

By Kristen Lepore 
The Rotarian -- February 2013 
 

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Residents of Yantaló face long wait times to see the one doctor who serves the town.

Aretired cardiologist and member of the Rotary Club of Gurnee, Illinois, USA, C. Luis Vasquez was taken aback by what he saw in Yantaló.

C. Luis Vasquez, a retired cardiologist and member of the Rotary Club of Gurnee, set up the Yantaló Peru Foundation to improve health care and education in the village his ancestors grew up in.

A farming town with a population of 4,000, Yantaló sits in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, about 5 miles from Moyobamba, the capital of the northern state of San Martín. It is the town where Vasquez’s mother, Adelina Soplin, was born in 1905. One hundred years later, in July 2005, Vasquez made his first visit.

He remembered the stories his mother had told him about the poor living conditions, the lack of medical care, and the subpar schools. Nothing had changed.

“I was upset,” says Vasquez, who was born in Lima and has lived in the United States since 1978. “I thought, ‘How is it possible that the local or national politicians keep Yantaló and many other places in a state of abandonment?’”

Within months, Vasquez, with his wife, Mary, and their three sons, had set up the Yantaló Peru Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to improving health care and education. The organization is building a 24-acre campus that will include a clinic and diagnostic center named for Vasquez’s mother. It will offer services in areas including women’s health, neonatology, pediatrics, environmental health, molecular diagnostics, and genetics, as well as continuing education programs for medical professionals on topics such as children’s health and nutrition, preventive medicine, public health, and domestic violence.

Green building

A group of 30 workers from Yantaló received training and are constructing the “green” building, which will incorporate five therapeutic gardens, solar panels, and natural ventilation as part of a plan by the NewSchool of Architecture and Design in San Diego. The foundation will also plant 6,000 trees on the campus. Donations, including support from Rotarians in Peru and the United States, are funding 80 percent of the US$3 million cost; Vasquez is covering the remainder. The clinic, which will eventually serve a population of two million in the region, is slated for completion by mid-2013. Vasquez has built relationships with organizations including the Yale University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and the Peruvian American Medical Society.

Currently, only one doctor works in Yantaló, part time. Medications are not always available, and the town has no specialists or diagnostic equipment. Even in Moyobamba, health services are lacking. When the new facility opens, local staff members will host international volunteer residents and professors, and all patients will receive the same level of service regardless of their ability to pay. “Most rural communities in Peru have limited access to quality health care facilities. Our goal is to provide uninterrupted services that aren’t currently available at other institutions in the region,” Vasquez says.

Jim Hessenthaler, president-elect of the Gurnee club, visited the construction site in September. “The progress is remarkable,” he says. “Luis’ commitment to a dream of a medical center is within reach.” Vasquez’s mission to provide maternal and child health care and support basic education and literacy is also in line with The Rotary Foundation’s Future Vision Plan, Hessenthaler notes. “That’s where he can make a difference.”  

Getting digital

When Vasquez first arrived 2005, he discovered 20 computers donated by the Peruvian government sitting in a box at the high school in Yantaló. The director told him that the teachers and students didn’t know how to use them. The Yantaló foundation now sponsors two computer teachers and five English teachers. Graphic design classes are part of the curriculum, and students are learning to use Excel, Photoshop, and InDesign. 

Volunteers who travel to Yantaló to teach English at the school also tutor adults. One student from the University of Missouri taught English classes to construction workers. Another from Germany taught English to students ages 5 to 16 and held night classes for adults. 

On a Thursday afternoon in September, Daniel Chujutalli Arevalo was watching his classmates play volleyball and waiting for a friend whom he tutors in basic English every day. In addition to taking the English and computer classes provided by the Yantaló foundation, he spends his time with volunteers who teach him advanced English. “I want to study languages so I can talk to people and travel,” he says.

The Yantaló foundation was also set to install Wi-Fi technology in the town by the end of 2012. Vasquez believes that improved access to information will empower the community. Wuilman Perez, a regional coordinator with the foundation and a native of Yantaló, concurs: “If Luis hadn’t decided to come here, nothing would be as it is now. Nothing would change. Now, when we are finished here, we can do it again somewhere else.”