Solar Suitcase

Portable Power

We Care Solar Suitcase

Laura Stachel, a U.S. obstetrician-­gynecologist, was observing a complicated baby delivery in Nigeria when the power went out. Electricity cuts are common in the country, which also has one of the world’s highest maternal-­mortality rates. So Stachel asked her husband, a solar-­power expert, to build an easy-to-use, suitcase-­size solution that could run lights for a delivery room along with a fetal heart monitor for her next trip. When she returned to the Nigerian hospital with the first Solar Suitcase, the midwives begged to keep it. Now, Stachel’s NGO has shipped nearly 4,000 units to 27 developing countries, putting an end to deliveries in darkness. —Aryn Baker

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