01/06/2026
Supplemental oxygen saves lives. Whether you're dealing with snakebites, war wounds, or "regular" medical complications, it's an incredible tool that's come through for us so many times.
For example: Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of child mortality worldwide. Most cases are easily treatable with antibiotics, but those take about 48 hours to start working. In the meantime, supplemental oxygen can help children with pneumonia survive. We've saved so many children’s lives with that combination of antibiotics and oxygen.
Getting oxygen in the jungle is no simple matter, though. There are two ways to acquire it: First, we can get it in big, heavy cylinders. These are great for use during transportation or as emergency backup, but one cylinder lasts for only a few hours. Out here in the jungle, refilling it means days and many miles of travel to a big city and back again.
The second way we can get oxygen is to use an oxygen concentrator. Since the COVID pandemic, these are easy and cheap to buy. It concentrates oxygen in the air of the room (about 21% normally) up to about 90%. But that process takes power. Before we had solar farms providing clean power 24/7, this was a real problem. We had to run generators day and night. Sometimes, we’d have two or three concentrators going at the same time. If a generator broke, a child could die.
Our solar power and oxygen concentrators save lives.
