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A Happy New Year to you all (though decidedly late!)
The good news is that Empower is moving to bigger and better things! After the Biogas Project in Sri Lanka, I have been lucky enough to be part of the School of Social Entrepreneurs programme in Sydney. Highly recommended for those of you who are interested in starting up projects/organisations that transcend philanthropy.
I will be focusing on Empower Inc. on a part-time basis, with the intention of scaling it up to focus on more holistic development projects and having professional systems in place. It will be very challenging and there is much uncertainty ahead....but I can't help but feel that this is what I was meant to do. I will spare you a long ramble. Our website is under development and will be accessible in 2-3 weeks tops. www.empowerprojects.org
A hint at what we're up to:
Malawi - We've partnered with the University of Mzuzu in Malawi and are currently discussing concepts for a holistic community development project that will target 10-20 rural households. We're working towards using sustainable technology to address energy, income, agriculture, water access, health and sanitation needs. Very exciting!
Sri Lanka - We're also exploring the possibility of a small scale dendro (biomass) power plant in Sri Lanka. This would involve a collaborative community effort as they'd help action a sustainable plan to grow and harvest gliricidia (a nitrogen fixing plant) to fuel power-generation (almost carbon neutral). This would generate income for the community and improve their agricultural productivity. The generated power would be sold to the national grid and the profits would be proportionately split between the Energy Forum, Empower and the community.
Future Updates: We'll continue to maintain this blog for more detailed accounts of how our projects are progressing. Likely maintaining individual blogs for each project we embark on. A special thank you goes out to the original Empower team. This wouldn't have been possible without your support. Thanks for sparing your time and energy...above all thanks for believing in Empower!
Over and Out,
Shanil
