PHYSICS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Having access to an energy source and to enough drinkable water are two ineluctable rights that all human beings should have access to. Sushine4Palestine is an NGO, founded in January 2013, with the aim at developing sustainable alternatives for addressing energy and water needs in emergency situations.
The NGO has been founded by a group of physicists, engineers and communication experts. Among them there is Barbara Capone, researcher at Department of Sciences of Roma Tre University. On Friday July 23rd, Barbara was invited in our department to give a talk on Physics for Sustainable Development.
She and her NGO realized a project for the construction and installation of a photovoltaic power generating plant on the roof of the Jenin Charitable Hospital in Gaza. The plant has been specifically designed to cover the energy needs for the entire hospital, and to include storage energy components for emergency purposes. The hospital was forced to reduce to 4 hours per day, the 24/7 services it could potentially offer a community of almost 200,000 individuals. With the installation of the first out of the three designed moduli, the Hospital is now operative 17 hours a day, and could increase up to 173% the number of patients that could profit of its services. It is now the first hospital being completely off grid in the Gaza strip.
Since this first project, the NGO realized how the access to water is very limited, both in the Gaza strip and in the West Bank. Sunshine4Palestine wishes with its sustainable water projects to find viable alternatives to the water shortages.
PONYS decided to help Sunshine4Palestine by organizing a lunch fund raising on the same day of Barbara talk. Students, professors and researchers have contributed bringing food and drinks of all kinds. All these dishes were sold to participants, collecting a total amount of 586 euro.
PONYS thanks everyone for their participation!