Power Up Gambia (PUG) is a
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
-based non-profit health care and environmental group that works in
the Gambia
The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...
, in
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...
. It was founded in 2006 by Kathryn Cunningham Hall, then a
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
undergraduate.
The organization's goal is to provide reliable electricity to health care facilities throughout the Gambia. They do so through the installation of
solar panel systems and
battery storage systems, providing power throughout the day.
History
Power Up Gambia was founded in 2006 by Kathryn Cunningham Hall, an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania.
While traveling to Sulayman Junkung General Hospital in the Gambia, she saw the consequences of limited electricity for Gambian patients. She founded Power Up Gambia, which installed a solar system at that hospital.
Since then, the group has grown and has completed a solar panel installation at a village clinic, Somita Community Clinic. PUG is looking to expand its organization beyond the Philadelphia area as it prepares for an installation at
Bansang Hospital, one of the largest in the Gambia.
For her work Kathryn Hall was named as one of the
10 Outstanding Young Americans (2009) by the
United States Junior Chamber
The United States Junior Chamber, also known as the Jaycees, JCs or JCI USA, is a leadership training, service organization and civic organization for people between the ages of 18 and 40. It is a branch of Junior Chamber International (JCI ...
(Jaycees).
The organization is also working with the Gambian Technical Training Institute in
Banjul, the capital, to develop a solar energy training program to support its efforts over the long term.
Projects
* Sulayman Junkung General Hospital: Completed in 2009
* Somita Community Clinic: Completed in 2010<
* Bansang Hospital: Currently Underway, Completion Estimated in 2012
Further reading
*
References
{{Reflist
Economy of the Gambia
Organizations based in Philadelphia