The Idea
In efforts to help bridge the Digital Divide, Thembalethu Home-Based Care recently received a generous donation of computers and funding to equip their facility...
Background
This year, the blogosphere welcomed a healthy debate about the amount of energy that can be saved by turning a web-site a darker color...
What You Can Do
Support Thembalethu
Turn The Web Black is a philanthropic project spearheaded by the South African NGO Thembalethu. In addition to helping decrease the negative effects technology can have on the environment by becoming a project participant...
The NGO - Thembalethu
Nestled in the isolated South African Nkomazi Region where the HIV rate has reached an alarming 50%, Thembalethu Home Based Care is an organization which aims to offer a haven of hope and love...
More Information
For more information on the various initiatives of Thembalethu or Turn the Web Black please email us at: contact@TurnTheWebBlack.org
The Idea
In efforts to help bridge the Digital Divide, Thembalethu Home-Based Care recently received a generous donation of computers and funding to equip their facility with wireless Internet in the Nkomazi Region of South Africa, making it the only Wi-Fi hotspot for miles. Looking to use the power of the Internet to generate funding and donations from new outlets, the youth came up with the idea of creating an energy conservation awareness campaign called "Turn the Web Black". Additionally, Thembalethu hopes that exposure to "Turn the Web Black" will also increase exposure to the NGO and its various initiatives to combat HIV/AIDs in a region plagued with a 50% infection rate.
South Africa is one of the lowest-cost power producers in the world. In the county that Thembalethu operates, one out of every three people live without electricity. At night, the stars shine bright as the region literally goes black, primarily lit by candlelight. With cheap production of electricity, in Mpumalanga, the average cost for electricity in a household is .297 Rand/ per kilowatt hour. If Google where to change their display to black, they would conserve 8.3 megawatts per day. That's almost 3,000 megawatts per year! Translated into South African electrical prices, using the blogosphere statistics that 25% of Internet users have CRT monitors, you're looking at over $500,000 of Rand in savings. The average domestic electricity consumption for the entire Mpumalanga, South African county is 2,288 megawatt hours. Keeping in mind that 30% of the homes in Mpumalanga do not have electricity, the county would need approximately 686 megawatt hours (30% increase) to electrify all homes. That would cost a mere 203,742 Rand - half of what it would be conserved if Google turned their website black. We don't anticipate Google changing their background color, but we hope that you will recognize the potential and either type your domain into the participation list, link the "Turn the Web Black" ribbon on your website or company's website, or learn more about Thembalethu and donate to their efforts (or participate in all three!).
Granted this is not taking into account the major expense of infrastructure set-up, maintenance, and other accessibility limitations, hurdles and expenses, it's more of an example of how small changes can make monumental changes for people that ask for very little beyond subsisting day-to-day. Please be aware! The situation is bleak at Thembalethu and the surrounding area. You can make a difference.
