There's light on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

While the children of Yege township are the first generation that could read, just a few years ago they couldn't after dark. That's because there was no electricity - hence, no light - in the seven tents that 78 of the primary school's 137 nomadic children called their "dorms" in Qumarleb county on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

That changed in 2011, with a project I led to install solar power. Later, the government, under the direction of the Communist Party of China, created new infrastructure, bringing a full power grid to isolated communities where elevations hover around 4,200 meters.

I've witnessed the changes firsthand since founding the volunteer initiative in this remote swath of the plateau. Over the past half-decade, the government has delivered continuous electrical power to the township and county. That's 100 percent, 24/7. That seemed unthinkable when I first arrived.