When University of Calgary professor Dave Irvine-Halliday got stuck, smack dab in the middle of Kathmandu, it must have been fate leading him toward his life’s calling.
The electrical engineering expert had planned a short trip to Nepal in order to help a Nepalese university develop an electrical engineering degree program.
“I had changed my ticket to stay a while longer, but ended up stuck in Kathmandu with a travel agent telling me it would be more than a month before I could get a flight out and back to Canada,” says Irvine-Halliday.
He decided to make the most of the debacle and planned a trek through the Annapurna Circuit.
“I loved every minute of it, my guide would introduce me to people along the road — I was sitting in this home with these two older folks; one had on many layers of clothing to keep warm, they had a tiny wee fire the size of a fist at most and that was their only form of lighting. Every now and again it would settle, then re-spark, and I could barely make out the outline of the people sitting next to me,” says Irvine-Halliday.
He realized there was a great need for safe lighting, and he decided to put his creativity and knowledge of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to work.
Irvine-Halliday then spent two years trying to come up with an acceptable form of white light through various LED designs. In 1998, with the help of Calgary-based technician John Shelley, their first version of white LED lighting was developed (before that, all LEDs had been red or blue).
The following year, Irvine-Halliday and his wife, Jenny, brought the prototype lamp to Nepali villages.
“The response was amazing. It brought tears to our eyes. Jenny and I knew this was what
we needed to do for the rest of our lives,” says Irvine-Halliday.
Thus, the Light Up The World Foundation (LUTW) was born. And over the next decade,
the couple began building what has become an international humanitarian organization.
LUTW has helped light more than 16,000 homes in 44 countries.
In 2007, Grady Semmens, senior communications manager for research at the U of C, visited Ghana with LUTW and witnessed first-hand the impact the Calgary-based organization has had.
“It was incredible to see how something as simple as a reliable source of light can make such a big difference in a community,” he says.
“I met a young man who volunteers his time to teach elementary school and at night he uses a small portable solar LED system to visit different family compounds and help children with their homework and teach adults to read and write.”
LUTW estimates it has directly impacted more than 100,000 people, and the organization along with its partners aims to help 2 billion people worldwide achieve access to adequate lighting.
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