Arrow Electronics Employees Gave the Gift of Lifesaving Technology this Holiday Season

Jan 3, 2019 9:25 AM ET

January 3, 2019 /3BL Media/ - Arrow Electronics employees throughout the Americas raised funds to build more Solar Suitcases for expectant mothers in remote places around the world. Through employee donations and a company match, enough funds were raised to provide off-grid electricity to three remote health clinics with the nonprofit We Care Solar.

Worldwide, more than one billion people live without electricity –  and 300,000 women die in childbirth, often struggling to get care from health centers that lack of basic power and technology. We Care Solar is a nonprofit that has teamed with Arrow to help vulnerable mothers and infants who live off the grid.

We Care Solar approached Arrow to improve their groundbreaking Solar Suitcase, a sun-powered, waterproof, portable system that includes medical quality lighting, a fetal monitor, a battery charger, headlamps and cell phone charging for remote health workers to make emergency referrals.

To provide We Care Solar with a lifesaving technology solution, Arrow offered its global technology and supply chain expertise. Arrow helped create a lower cost, more powerful design that is now easier to operate and has been failure-tested in sub-Saharan clinics operating through the night. Extensive field testing in Uganda will continue in 2019.

To date, the Solar Suitcase has served 1.8 million mothers and infants and 3,500 health centers and emergency response teams in 27 developing nations.

“Having the light changed the lives of the health workers and the patients. It changed everything,” said Maimuna Muye, a Nigerian midwife.

About Arrow Electronics

Arrow Electronics guides innovation forward for over 150,000 of the world’s leading manufacturers of technology used in homes, business and daily life. With 2017 sales of $26.6 billion, Arrow aggregates electronics and enterprise computing solutions for customers and suppliers in industrial and commercial markets. The company maintains a network of more than 345 locations serving over 80 countries. Learn more at FiveYearsOut.com.

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