“Sleep Eco” project
Ten Hill Place Hotel has partnered with Mercy Corps to launch a new initiative that will power essential healthcare services for a remote Colombian village and help tackle climate change by reducing its' CO2 emissions.
The initiative aims to build a micro-hydro renewable energy facility in Minaflores, a remote community of indigenous families nestled deep within Colombia's mountainous interior. Harnessing the power of a 62m waterfall, the facility would deliver enough clean, cheap, reliable energy to safely store life-saving medicines and vaccines while reducing local energy dependence on the use of diesel and kerosene.
Minaflores, which is a 5 hour hike from the nearest health clinic, has no source of electricity and no prospect of being connected to Colombia's national grid. Currently the village gets by using one gasoline generator for emergencies and local midwives have to rely on candles and kerosene lamps, severely increasing the risk of complications during night-time childbirths.
The project would further transform villagers' lives by allowing them to install electric lighting and cooking facilities and also have mobile telephones for emergencies.
Ten Hill Place hopes to raise £33,000 for the project from a discretionary £1 charge per night; a sum which represents the cost of each guest's carbon emissions.
Gary Burniske, Country Director for Mercy Corps in Colombia said: "This project is a great example of how a relatively small amount of money can go an amazingly long way to deliver real change to poor and vulnerable communities.
As well as transforming health care in the village the project will also help develop the local economy by allowing people to use the power for farming and business activities to generate income. Ten Hill Place deserves real recognition for choosing to support a carbon offset project in a way that benefits such a desperately poor and remote part of Colombia."
For more information about Ten Hill Place visit http://www.tenhillplace.com