Local windpower company commits to fighting illiteracy in Liberia

By Bunmi Ishola

Transcript Staff Writer

After driving about 18 hours straight from Chicago to Norman because of bad online directions, the delegation from the Liberian Literacy Foundation finally pulled into Bergey Windpower.

From the moment they first caught sight of the wind turbines, their spirits lifted and they had no doubt in their minds that every minute of their long trip was worth it.

"When I see it (the wind turbines), I'm just thrilled," Karto Marshall, who sits on the board of directors for the foundation, said. Even after all the time wasted, she said seeing them brought hope and "when there is hope, there is a lot of will."

Marshall, along with Victor Helb, executive director of the foundation, Alexander Gbayee, U.S. Consul General of Liberia, and Liberian international student Moriah Yeakula, came to Norman to visit Bergey Windpower with the hope of partnering with Bergey Windpower to help provide electricity and clean water to Liberian schools.

"Our goal is to help the situation in Liberia, West Africa, where the illiteracy rate is very high," Marshall said. At least 75 percent of the country is illiterate, she said. "We have been doing a lot of research hoping we get a lot of help and establish a future for the children (in Liberia)."

While the foundation's primary focus is collecting and recycling books for Liberian schools, they are seeking to branch out and help education in a new way.

"Large parts of Liberia are not yet electrified," Helb said. "That means safe drinking water is hard to come by in most of the country." This, Helb said, challenges the growth of education in the nation.

Hence the visit to Bergey.

Bergey Windpower has done rural infrastructure/rural electrification projects in about 40 countries over the last 20 years, president Mike Bergey said. They have worked with the World Bank, Foreign Assistance Agency, the UN development program, the International Red Cross and many other organizations.

They have been a major supplier to villages in China, so much so that Bergey now has a manufacturing factory in Beijing. In Africa, the company has worked with the Moroccan government, as well as in Egypt and Mauritania. The company is currently active in Kenya, where they are doing telecommunications work.

"They are one of our biggest customers in the world," Bergey said of the East African country.

Right now, Bergey said his company is finishing up a contract to provide wind turbines for seven villages in the African country of Eritrea.

"We're a tool," Bergey said. "Our equipment is a tool ... it's a necessary component of rural development."

Most electricity is powered through diesel power or grid extentions, he said. While both remain the traditional ways of electrifying rural areas, Bergey said wind power generally has a lower construction and lower operating cost and "there is a steady progress to greater use of it."

A little bit of electricity goes a long way in changing a country, Bergey said. It can help run lights, computers and phones, and pump water to villages, bringing much needed progress. Adding Liberia to the list of countries Bergey has worked with would be an honor, he said.

"We're going to do what we can to support the project," Bergey said.

He has two different models which can help bring electricity to Liberia. The 1-kilowatt turbine could power a school, clinic, small business or about five houses, Bergey said. The 10-kilowatt turbine would be able to run the center of a small village. These are the resources the Liberian Literacy Foundation hope to harness.

But the cheapest turbine costs about $6,000. As a nonprofit organization, that isn't a cost the foundation can easily procure, especially if their goal is 30 turbines for 30 schools by February 2008.

This is where the books fit back in. The literacy foundation has set up an online bookstore, partnering with Barnes and Noble, Ulibris.com and DHL. In November they plan to launch the "A Million Books for a Million Lives" campaign on about 12,000 college campuses in the United States. The books collected on these campuses will be recycled and exchanged through the foundation's online bookstore, the proceeds largely going to fund buying the wind turbines from Bergey, Helb said.

"It's part of a larger project essentially bringing Bergey on board," he said. Members of the University of Oklahoma's Sierra Club Student Coalition, OU Campus Climate Challenge and Our Earth also came to Bergey to meet with the delegation and tour the company. Their hope is that OU will be able to partner with the Liberian Literacy Foundation in this endeavor.

There were hopes that Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf also would be present yesterday, Helb said. The group extended an invitation to her since she is in Oklahoma to speak at Langston University's commencement ceremony. However, she was unable to come so the group took lots of notes and pictures. Gbayee said they will meet with her in Langston today and share their findings.

Johnson-Sirleaf "is very much interested in education for our people," the consul general said. He took many pictures of the wind turbines and the company in general; they will stand as proof that there is hope for the Liberia. The country is starving for any educational advancement they can get, he said. "All the kids today, if you ask them what they want to do, they say they want to go to school," Gbayee said.

"Liberia, after 14 years of civil war, is desperate to return to normalcy and part of that is getting hundreds of thousands of children that have been displaced (back in schools)," Helb said. This endeavor "is expected to play such a positive role to the lives of these children."

"The bottom line is that the Liberian Literacy Foundation believes despite the Liberian government's best intentions and certainly their capabilities, we believe it's individuals and organizations like ours that are ultimately going to play the greatest role in Liberia's revival."

For more information about The Liberian Literacy Foundation, the book exchange and other projects to aid literacy in Liberia visit www.liberianliteracyfoundation.org.