Electricity questions Cancel Title is required

I was looking through on all of my sponsored kids when I saw that Benard's electricity is written as "Available but not affordable." Does this mean that it's possible for him to have it- like everything is wired in the house (or however they do it) but they just can't afford the monthly bills (or however they do the billing there).

I would assume it would be too hard for like a sponsor to pay the bill, but still gotta just ask. Is there any easy-ish way to find out if that's even a possibility, or is it just too hard for CI to coordinate with the family and everything. I would totally understand if it was too hard to figure out and to work out correctly. But I just had to at least ask and clear my mind on the questions.

Thanks for your time!

I think it means "it is available in the community for those who can afford it--but your sponsored child can't." A couple of my kids originally had electricity "Not Available." Later it became "Available but not affordable." Later still, for one of them, it became "Available." Hooray! It's worth asking about.

Not available, available but not affordable, available, non-regulated use, and regulated use ... these are the different options I have seen over the years and most seem pretty straightforward ... I'm stumped, though, about "available" and how it differentiates from "available but not affordable" (or from regulated/unregulated use, on the other end of the scale). Maybe "available" means it's present in the community and the family could afford it, but some other circumstance has prevented them from hooking up and/or flipping the switch?

Whatever any of those words mean, I'm finding there is more important things I am trying to help my childs family with. Even though electric for a fan would be useful in the Philippines. So far Ive had to concentrate on toilets, water, and home improvements; some of which I hope the typhoon hasn't damaged.

I too am confused about the "available" vs "available but not affordable" ?? Maybe a CI rep could clarify.

The thing I fear most about the homes without electricity is candle and oil lamp accidents/fires. On the other hand, a botchy electric job could produce risks as well.

@Sakurose If you search "electricity" on L1, you'll see that some sponsors have provided electricity in the form of an SNG.

Sorry for the delay in responding, we are still pretty busy fielding questions about children in the Philippines. Here is the "official" interpretation of the the Electricity field on the Family Record:

Available - Not affordable:

• Have electricity installed, but cannot afford the bill/ service is shutoff for lack of payment.
• Electricity avaiable in community, but cannot afford to have it installed

Not Available:

• Not in community

Unregulated:

• The family has electricity, but they do not pay for it or pay a neighbor/another family for it (electric company does not know they have it)

Regulated:

• They have legal electricity

Many sponsors have provided a SNG to pay for the installation and monthy bill. Others send SNG to pay the bill for the family

If the family has either Unregulated or Available - Not affordable, would have to memo to find out the details and costs involved.

are "Available" and "Available but not affordable" the same?

Available is no longer an option for the SOA to choose when updating FR's as it is really ambiguous. For the past 6 months or so if a child had "available" on his FR, the staff has been updating them.

If a child's FR still says available, it should be updated to a more accurate option during the next FR update for the child.

The four options listed in my post above are the only reasons that can now be selected, as they cover all the bases and leave no room for confusion.

That makes sense, thanks

Wow thanks for all the comments. After Christmas comes and goes I'll look into probably seeing if I can help them out somehow!

I was just wondering, when there is no electricity in the house (for whatever reason) what do the children/families use when the sun goes down or when it's dark outside (like stormy or whatever). Do they use lamps, candles, their stoves or do they just sit in the darkness once the sun goes down?

I was curious mainly because of safety. I'd hate to think that they were using candles or something that could easily catch fire if someone fell asleep while reading or something- like how I often do.

If what they use is not safe or if they use nothing, is there anything that I can do to help them to either have a portable light or safe light. Or is this something I would have to have CI check out for each child.

I'm just mainly curious for Denes and Benard in Zambia and James in the Philippines.

The families would use candles, oil lamps, flashlights whatever is available and affordable. Most families simply retire for the day when the sun goes down.

What you could do for the families depends on why the house does not have electricity. If their family records indicate it's available, then the family has either had it in the past and the bill is in arrears or they can't afford to get it hooked up.

In this situation we can memo to request the cost of having it installed or to have it turned back on -- but it can be costly, and the family might not be able to afford to pay the bill each month, so it would end up being shut off again.

If it's not available in their community, then there is nothing that we can memo for. Whatever means the family has to getting light into their home, be it safe or not, is their only option.

I've seen this subject brought up before. I have never been concerned that my families have no electric. I can't understand the worry as the U.S. has only a few decade of electric by the common man. We have had electric just long enough for us to be stupid when we use candles and fuel lanterns. In early years as a child on the farm, even with electric, we went to bed at sundown and got up at dawn because thats just the way all farmers mostly did it. Don't worry, our kids are fine without electric. There are more immediate problems to that I'm trying to fix.

certain types of lanterns . im sure there are safe ones too. a bad electricity hookup can be equally dangerous

My new favorite flashlight is actually a weather radio with a solar panel, crank, AM/FM and a nice bright 3 LED light. Probably not what you'd want to light up a room to study by, but a radio for news would probably be very helpful in a home without electricity too. Hopefully the kids in homes without electricity are able to go to the community center to study, etc.

Thank you so much everyone for the info on the flashlights. I never thought of that. I'll have to look into it for sure!

Can anyone recommend a quality, durable brand crank-powered flashlight, that holds up well under difficult weather conditions, that is not too expensive? Thank you for the suggestion.

I suspect that kids living on the farm in the U.S., decades ago, were probably safer from other humans, than our sponsored kids who live in dangerous slums. Having some light in the house also frees up more hours for study--especially important for girls in patriarchal societies, who typically get assigned more household labor than boys do, using up valuable daylight.

I was looking at crank flashlights a few months ago. I went on Amazon and changed the star rating option to 4+ stars. Here were the results. The first few seem to be the most popular choices. I did notice that the crank to light ratio isnt as great as I thought it would be...something like 1 min of cranking for 3-5 mins of light. Think it would still be useful for quick tasks

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_72_0?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Acrank+flashlight%2Cp_72%3A2661618011andkeywords=crank+flashlightandie=UTF8andqid=1390944976andrnid=2661617011

Thanks for the info Jesscoffee. I was wondering if they are they seem to be.

The crank radio/flashlight I like so much is the Ambient Weather WR-111B, but it is a flashlight. The claim I think is that one minute of cranking provides 70 minutes of light, but it would be difficult to study by I think.

The Goal Zero flashlight has a "floodlight" that could be hung up and looks like it would be good to work or study by...

debbies said:

Available is no longer an option for the SOA to choose when updating FR's as it is really ambiguous. For the past 6 months or so if a child had "available" on his FR, the staff has been updating them. If a child's FR still says available, it should be updated to a more accurate option during the next FR update for the child. The four options listed in my post above are the only reasons that can now be selected, as they cover all the bases and leave no room for confusion.

I've just learned that IT was not able to make that change in the data base yet, it is still a viable option for the SOA's to choose.  It's ambiguous, it can mean they have it or that it's available in the community but they can't afford it or it's been turned off due to non-payment.