[Photo] Volunteer Programs for Samsung Employees

Since 2010, Samsung Electronics employees have been participating in a global volunteer project called the Samsung Employee Volunteer Program. Through the program, applicants have the chance to go on a week-long volunteer mission in other countries. One thousand one hundred and ten Samsung employees have participated in the program to date.

This year’s volunteer opportunities took place in six countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Vietnam, Mexico, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. The Samsung volunteers involved in the Project-Oriented Volunteer Activity presented their own ideas to bring small but meaningful innovations to the local communities they visited.

In preparation for their anticipated activities, the participants had to communicate with local NGOs to make thorough plans for their work in advance. They were to design project items that could be easily reproduced and duplicated by the local residents without any support.

Take a look at what the project-oriented activities in the six countries were all about.

Azerbaijan, Makeshift Air Cleaners

For this project, participants came up with a concept of a makeshift air cleaner to purify the air from nearby oil project sites. The employees made multiple air purifiers and installed them inside the Gymnasium of Boarding Type with Foreign Languages Bias in Ganja.

The purifiers are made of easily accessible, recycled materials. Cooling fans from old computers that are no longer in use were combined with cheap yet effective air filters found in cars to make the purifiers. The fan pulls air into the purifier, and the filter cleans the air.

Together with local non-governmental organizations, the Samsung employees showed the residents how to make the do-it-yourself air purifiers so that they could be easily reproduced. Thirty purifiers were made and delivered to the gymnasium, and more will be manufactured to be transported to several local universities in Ganja within the year.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, Shake Delight Self-Powered LED Lanterns

Shake Delight was designed to help people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where electricity is not easily accessible. For instance, the lanterns help students to study at night, and helps people to see better when going outside at night in rural areas. Using magnets and wires placed inside plastic bottles, the LED lantern can power itself. Just five minutes of shaking the Shake Delight lanterns gives them power for up to eight hours. So far, 100 bottles have been made and delivered to local people by the students and more local youth will join the project to expand it further.

Zambia, Sunlight

Sunlight is a lantern made of recycled cellphone batteries. It was designed to help the local community minimize traffic accident casualties at night.

Making a copy of Sunlight lantern is as simple as connecting four LED light bulbs on a used battery and a little bit of soldering. People can attach the lanterns anywhere they want, like bicycles or bracelet chains. 200 lanterns with used batteries were locally made and another 200 will be produced within the year.

Mexico, Photo Studio

Since Yucatan is a popular tourist destination in Mexico, Samsung employees decided that it would be beneficial to provide skills training for the residents to learn more about photo-related techniques. The photo studio skills training included how to use cameras, spotlights and photo editing tools. The volunteers shared skills training that would allow the residents of Yucatan to advance their photography skills.

Vietnam, Dalbae (Run! Vietnam) Bicycle

In Vietnam, many children commute by bicycle. Since children are already familiar with bicycles in Vietnam, the Samsung participants created the Dalbae (Run! Vietnam) Bicycle project to explain to the local children about the concept of private power generation.

Dalbae uses motors from old washing machines to create electricity as the pedals of the bicycle rotate. To further promote friendly competition, the volunteers attached fans to each of the bicycles. As the rider pedals harder and faster, air from the fans lift the ball, allowing riders to compete against each other while generating energy.

Uzbekistan, Solar Panels

Last year, volunteers used bicycles to create, store and spread electricity in case of blackouts. This year, volunteers also worked earnestly to better harness the power of solar energy in the country. They believed it would be a great idea, since countries in Central Asia get so much sunlight. They explained the concept of solar panels and how they work, teaching the residents how they can use the panels to generate solar power.

Below are photos of the electricity-generating bicycles. Currently, two bicycles have been installed and two more will soon be locally produced.