This month’s feature is about a program special to all of us at Indiana Electric Cooperatives, the publisher of Indiana Connection.

Project Indiana is an initiative created by Indiana’s electric cooperatives to bring power to underdeveloped countries. In 2012, to celebrate the International Year of the Cooperative, two teams of Indiana cooperative lineworkers spent a month electrifying three villages in Guatemala. Thirteen years later, 16 Indiana lineworkers traveled to Palmira — a mountainous area along the western edge of Guatemala — with the intention to electrify 109 homes. At the end of the two weeks, they exceeded that goal, with 197 homes receiving power. 

As Americans, we tend to take electricity for granted. We might complain about it when we feel our monthly bill is too expensive, but we know when we flip a switch or plug something in, the power will be there. 

What the team was able to accomplish down in Palmira in such a short amount of time is not only an impressive feat of engineering but will change the lives of the residents. They can now store their food in refrigerators and freezers. They can acquire appliances to cook food safely inside their homes. Even something as simple as having light in the house after the sun goes down is now possible.

Electric cooperatives are governed by seven principles, one of which is “Concern for Community.” Indiana’s cooperatives care about not only the communities close to home but also those much farther away that can benefit from a helping hand. Readily available electricity not only powers the village but also progress and new opportunities. 

I encourage you to go here and learn more about this amazing trip and the Project Indiana program.