The triqui (ethnic group) locality of El Infiernillo, in the Mixteca region, is where the homes of Esmeralda and Margarita are located. They are new users of ‘Luz en Casa Oaxaca’ who tell the first changes in their lives due to the programme.

Esmeralda, a 17-year-old two-child mother, explains how the life is in her small village of less than 20 people “I had to go up to the mountain to cut ocote (wood) to lighting it in the night; it was hard to wake up to lighting the ocote in order to breast-feed my baby and having more smoke than light… I tried making my baby not to breathe that smoke that damaged his health”. “Then, I registered for the programme to have access to a photovoltaic system that gives a better light and, the most important thing, that remove the ocote smoke from my house: I can live calm because my child does not breathe it more” Esmeralda says happily carrying her baby.

In the same way Margarita, a 63-year-old woman, tells how her life changes with ‘Luz en Casa Oaxaca’ “Every night I lighted with the ocote my home and, so, I could make a coffee break. Today everything is better; I never imagined that I could get electric lighting for my home after many years of living only with the ocote lighting: I will do more work in the evening, and go out with my solar lamp to watching my animals before going to bed” says gratefully.

ACCIONA Microenergia and the Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are included in the 2030 Agenda, a 15-year plan of action that favours the people, the planet and the prosperity. There are 17 SDG which are integrated and indivisible and that comprise the three dimensions of the Development: economic, social and environmental.

The rural electrification programmes of the ACCIONA Microenergia foundationopens in a new tab impact on those three dimensions, and directly on the SDG 7, Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

In Esmeralda’s and Margarita’s homes the SDG 3, Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, is impacted too: the electric lighting provided by their third generation solar home system gives a dwelling that is better prepared for her needs, and removes the smoke generated by the ocote‘s burning, which provokes eye and lung diseases.

ACCIONA Microenergia Mexico

It is a non-profit associationopens in a new tab that was created by the ACCIONA Microenergia foundation to facilitate access to electricity to isolated rural communities, which are not included in the national grid extension of Mexico. ACCIONA Microenergia Mexico deploys the 'Luz en Casa Oaxaca' programme under a public-private partnership with the Government of the State of Oaxaca and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation.