Dubois REC lineman heads to Guatemala to electrify homes, school, clinic and church

Dubois Rural Electric Cooperative line-worker Tyler Asbell will join a crew of 15 other Indiana electric cooperative linemen traveling to Guatemala in mid-March as part of an international initiative to bring electricity to a developing area in Guatemala.

“Project Indiana: Empowering Global Communities for a Better Tomorrow” will bring electricity to a part of the Central American country where none is available. The crew will spend the second half of March electrifying the village of El Zapotillo (in Cuilco, Huehuetenango).

When completed, approximately 50 homes, a school, a clinic and a church will have electricity for the first time.

Asbell joined Dubois REC in 2015 as an apprentice lineman.

“I’m looking forward to helping electrify the village and hopefully make their lives better,” commented Asbell.

This is the Indiana electric cooperatives’ third trip to Guatemala. In August 2012, 28 Hoosier lineworkers from 17 of Indiana’s electric cooperatives, spent four weeks working across the mountainous terrain to construct more than 20 miles of power lines and bring electricity to three villages.

In April 2015, 14 lineworkers battled extreme heat and the rugged land to string 11 miles of wire to connect 76 poles across 2,500 feet of mountains.