Women in the Philippines are working together to build resilience to weather disasters like typhoons and organize around other issues including sustainable agriculture and violence against women, Thomson Reuters reports. After Typhoon Haiyan hammered the central Philippines in 2013, Lorna dela Pena began organizing in Marabut to train women on how to operate solar-powered generators to use during evacuations, including one instance when, “We were able to use this TekPak to power a nebuliser when someone had an asthma attack,” Azucena Bagunas, another of the “solar scholars” said.
The community is moving beyond using solar solely in emergencies and is using the generators to power their homes as well. “If we use (solar) as our main source of power in our homes, then we don’t even have to pay for electricity,” Bagunas said. “As long as you have a panel, you’ll have affordable and reliable power.” Hopefully, the emergency generators will not be needed as Tropical Storm Rai strengthens and could his the country with typhoon strength later this week. (Thomson Reuters Foundation; Rai: CNN; Climate Signals background: Cyclonic storms)