Uganda 2019: Our Partnership with Winds of Change (Lake Turkana Wind Power)
365 wind turbines stretch across the Loiyangalani District in Marsabit, satisfying 18% of Kenya’s energy needs. This wind farm is called the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project (LTWP) – also known as “The Project.” By following the acronym CARES (Collaborative, Accessible, Respectful, Excellence, Safe), LTWP dedicates themselves to a high degree of social responsibility in addition to providing low-cost and reliable energy to Kenya’s national grid.
In the countries we visit, we always work together with local organizations who are embedded in the local or regional communities. For our Kenya mission, we teamed up with LTWP through their very own Winds of Change Foundation. This initiative is comprised of various projects aimed to improve the livelihood of LTWP’s constituents. These programs target specific issues related to education, water, community, and of course, healthcare. As LTWP possessed an accurate knowledge of the medical landscape in Kenya, they proved to be great partners to M2H. Together, we served over a hundred patients. Willem Dolléman, an overseer of WoC, and his wife Marie-José sent us a follow-up email shortly after our mission. You will find it copied below:
Dear Dr. Geelhoed and the team of M2H,
On behalf of Lake Turkana Wind Power, the Winds of Change Foundation, and the communities you worked with, we would like to thank you for your dedication to help and inspire the helpless, the sick, the caregivers and all others who you encountered during your tour of Northern Kenya.
You have impacted many lives and in a short period of time you have been changing some people’s lives forever! We are very grateful for your commitment to help the “furthest people first!” We feel privileged to have met you and your team, and to have worked with you!
You have setup a memorable organisation and we hope that we can work with you again in the coming years!
We were very impressed with your surgical units. Hopefully we will see them in action next time! Willem wouldn’t mind to drive the lorry around for a while if he had the change, for sure!
Wishing you a good mission in Uganda and wherever you go next.
Asante sana, and till we meet again!
Willem and Marie-José Dólleman
We’d like to extend a huge THANK YOU to our friends at Lake Turkana Wind Power and their Winds of Change foundation (see the full story from their team here!). As Dr. G wrote in his April Journal, “it is encouraging to see that some of the high-technology is helping. The MSU is proving to be a useful model for many social changes. As is Winds of Change.”
Want to serve with us? Learn more about our mission objectives here and apply to volunteer with us here.
