About
A student, his father's country, and a house that went dark at six
Panels for Panama is not an organisation with a building. It is one person raising money kit by kit, and a small number of people in Panama who put the hardware on roofs.
Tiago's father is from Panama. Visiting family there is not tourism, it is going back to where half of you comes from. On one of those trips he saw houses an hour outside a city that still had no electricity, and he could not put it down afterwards.
The thing that stuck was not how far away it felt. It was how close it was. You could see lit windows on the other side of the valley. The difference between those houses and this one was not effort, or luck, or anything anybody did wrong. It was a few kilometres of wire that a spreadsheet said was not worth running.
The difference between a lit house and a dark one is a few kilometres of wire nobody was ever going to run.
Why the project existsHow it runs
Deliberately small. Every dollar is tied to a specific kit going to a specific house. The number on the front page moves when a family gets light, not when a form is filled in. There is no office, no staff, and nobody drawing a salary out of this.
Money is held on GoFundMe, which is also where every donation is receipted. Hardware is bought in Panama, so the money stays in the local economy and the person who installs a kit is the person who can come back and fix it.
Where it is going
-
Now: the first 25 homes
A $10,000 goal, which is 25 complete kits. 5 funded so far.
-
Next: train a second técnico
One trained installer per district means repairs do not wait for anyone to travel.
-
After that: a proper nonprofit
Registering formally so donations are tax deductible and larger gifts are possible.
Events
Come raise a kit with us
Everything here is run by students. Show up, bring people, and a house gets light out of it.
Nothing on the calendar yet. Car washes, school talks, and kit build nights are how most of this gets funded, and the next dates go up here as soon as they are set.
Want to host one at your school or church? Get in touch
Contact
Questions, or want to help?
Schools, churches, and anyone who wants to sponsor a whole kit: write to us. Tiago answers.
You can also message us straight through the GoFundMe page.
Keep reading
The rest of it
One person cannot wire a country. Twenty five houses is another matter.
$7,935 left to reach the goal. Every kit funded is a family that stops losing the end of every day.
Donate on GoFundMeOpens in a new tab.