0:00:12.461,0:00:14.697
In May 2013, I attended a lecture

0:00:14.697,0:00:16.749
at the Federal University[br]of Santa Catarina.

0:00:16.749,0:00:19.464
They were offering[br]social exchange opportunities.

0:00:19.464,0:00:21.896
There were three students giving a talk,

0:00:21.896,0:00:25.816
one had been to Africa, the other to India[br]and the third to Eastern Europe.

0:00:25.816,0:00:28.308
Their stories were so incredible

0:00:30.178,0:00:33.208
that they made me question[br]that moment I was living.

0:00:33.208,0:00:35.501
I'd just graduated[br]in Business Administration,

0:00:35.501,0:00:38.186
and had returned[br]to my senior year at law school.

0:00:38.186,0:00:42.478
I had a full-time job,[br]so I was professionally satisfied,

0:00:43.397,0:00:45.669
but deep down I felt[br]that something was missing.

0:00:45.669,0:00:48.515
I lacked life experiences like those.

0:00:48.515,0:00:51.475
I started researching some places[br]I was interested in,

0:00:51.478,0:00:54.981
I was torn between Asia and Africa.

0:00:54.981,0:00:59.125
So I talked to some friends about where[br]they'd been, and their impressions.

0:00:59.130,0:01:04.443
Two friends of mine who had been to Kenya[br]described it with such passion,

0:01:04.443,0:01:09.234
such emotion, and even nostalgia[br]what they’d experienced there,

0:01:09.687,0:01:14.151
that I'm sure they would’ve killed me[br]if I'd considered going somewhere else,

0:01:14.151,0:01:18.015
But mostly I wanted to feel for myself[br]and see with my own eyes

0:01:18.015,0:01:20.577
if everything they'd told me was true.

0:01:20.577,0:01:23.047
At that time, the hardest thing[br]was quitting my job.

0:01:23.047,0:01:25.026
My boss thought I'd become a hippie

0:01:25.026,0:01:28.487
because I was going to leave everything[br]to do volunteer work in Africa.

0:01:28.487,0:01:30.436
But the decision was made,

0:01:30.436,0:01:32.826
I bought my ticket[br]the day after leaving my job,

0:01:32.826,0:01:34.264
so there was no turning back.

0:01:34.264,0:01:36.435
In July, I flew to Kenya,

0:01:36.435,0:01:38.810
and as soon as I arrived,[br]the journey proved to me

0:01:38.810,0:01:41.900
that if I was seeking adventure,[br]I had found it on that first day.

0:01:41.900,0:01:45.112
The airline company lost my bag. Great!

0:01:45.112,0:01:47.790
The guy who'd pick me up didn't arrive.

0:01:47.790,0:01:50.841
I was left alone[br]in the airport for four hours.

0:01:50.841,0:01:52.989
The house where I'd stay[br]no longer existed.

0:01:52.989,0:01:56.415
I ended up going to another house,[br]and all of this on my first day.

0:01:56.418,0:01:58.069
That's fine, I wanted adventure,

0:01:58.069,0:02:00.509
that's what I was there for,[br]so I had to face it.

0:02:01.214,0:02:06.678
Nairobi, to my surprise, or rather[br]to my ignorance, was a very rich city.

0:02:06.681,0:02:12.564
I saw BMWs, five-star hotels,[br]even an expensive Brazilian steakhouse.

0:02:12.564,0:02:19.261
The first time I saw this reality,[br]this stereotype we have about Africa,

0:02:19.261,0:02:21.449
was my first day in the school.

0:02:21.449,0:02:24.120
I remember waking up early around 7 a.m.,

0:02:24.129,0:02:28.296
leaving home with my two[br]Chinese friends, Alan and Dousy.

0:02:28.296,0:02:33.213
We got into a Matatu,[br]a small shuttle for 16 passengers,

0:02:33.213,0:02:36.460
really tight, with very loud music.

0:02:36.460,0:02:39.344
Some even have neon lights,[br]almost a party.

0:02:39.344,0:02:43.544
I strongly recommend it to anyone[br]who goes to Nairobi, to try a Matatu.

0:02:43.547,0:02:47.133
It took one hour to get to the slums.

0:02:47.133,0:02:52.095
I remember when we got there[br]what surprised me most was the filth.

0:02:52.095,0:02:56.602
There was no sewage system.[br]I mean nothing at all.

0:02:58.913,0:03:04.791
They make huge piles of garbage[br]and burn them into embers.

0:03:04.791,0:03:11.574
They'd burn releasing this horrible odor[br]and toxic smoke into the air.

0:03:11.584,0:03:16.600
Not to mention all the dust around[br]because the streets weren't asphalted.

0:03:16.600,0:03:21.951
In some slum areas the majority of people[br]can't afford private toilets,

0:03:21.951,0:03:26.309
so they put their waste into plastic bags[br]and throw them out the window.

0:03:26.309,0:03:29.326
In some places the smell[br]was just unbearable.

0:03:29.326,0:03:31.241
So this was the first important lesson.

0:03:31.241,0:03:33.400
We'd return home asking ourselves

0:03:33.400,0:03:37.860
how we'd be able to work there[br]every day for eight weeks[br]

0:03:37.860,0:03:41.561
if we already felt sick on the first day.

0:03:42.501,0:03:46.973
The first lesson was a paradigm shift[br]in that humans are extremely adaptable.

0:03:46.973,0:03:50.944
After three days we were already at home,[br]we didn't care about the stench,

0:03:50.959,0:03:55.126
we walked everywhere[br]and knew where to avoid the worst places.

0:03:55.126,0:03:58.082
This was already[br]the first learning experience.

0:03:58.082,0:03:59.756
I had originally gone to Nairobi

0:03:59.756,0:04:02.756
to teach English and math[br]in a primary school,

0:04:02.756,0:04:07.892
and to help build a school[br]with money we had fundraised in Brazil.

0:04:07.892,0:04:10.271
My first challenge was as a teacher.

0:04:10.279,0:04:14.288
I shared a 20m² room [br]with two other teachers.

0:04:16.179,0:04:21.499
Three classes in the same room, [br]with no partitions.

0:04:22.048,0:04:26.693
Sometimes I tried[br]to do dynamics, or tell a joke,

0:04:26.693,0:04:30.606
which was impossible since it distracted[br]students of the other classes.

0:04:30.606,0:04:33.354
It created an awkward situation[br]with the other teachers.

0:04:33.354,0:04:35.393
I also had to adapt myself to the culture,

0:04:35.393,0:04:39.191
because teachers there[br]have strong authority over the students.

0:04:39.191,0:04:42.089
Sometimes they'd beat the students,[br]and I had to keep quiet,

0:04:42.089,0:04:46.397
absorb this, and accept the culture,[br]and I couldn't do anything about it.

0:04:46.397,0:04:49.285
This all proved to be[br]very difficult for me.

0:04:50.500,0:04:52.642
I started to teach,

0:04:52.642,0:04:56.742
and a week later we demolished the school[br]to build the new one.

0:04:56.743,0:05:03.109
We moved to another building[br]we had bought, 500 meters away.

0:05:03.109,0:05:07.308
The new building had better infrastructure[br]with a room for each class,

0:05:07.308,0:05:11.510
but it presented us with a new problem[br]that we hadn’t dealt with before.

0:05:11.512,0:05:14.344
Inside the classroom,[br]you couldn't see your own hand.

0:05:14.344,0:05:19.414
This slum where I worked called Mathare[br]had 600 thousand inhabitants,

0:05:19.414,0:05:21.748
one of the poorest in the whole of Africa.

0:05:21.748,0:05:24.082
The shacks were very close to each other,

0:05:24.082,0:05:27.165
which didn't allow the sunlight in[br]through the windows,

0:05:27.165,0:05:30.785
to light up the houses or classrooms.

0:05:30.785,0:05:33.752
We already had enough daily problems,

0:05:34.555,0:05:38.429
like hungry students[br]whose only meal of the day was at school,

0:05:38.429,0:05:41.290
a lunch made of potatoes or beans,

0:05:41.290,0:05:43.407
or peanut butter for breakfast.

0:05:43.407,0:05:47.973
Not only did they not have[br]learning material, trained staff,

0:05:47.973,0:05:51.901
but on top of this the student[br]couldn't even see his own book.

0:05:51.901,0:05:53.455
This made me so frustrated.

0:05:53.455,0:05:57.230
I talked with an Egyptian friend of mine[br]who had the same problem at his school,

0:05:57.230,0:05:59.626
and we decided to find a solution

0:05:59.626,0:06:04.038
to bring light to communities[br]that didn't have access to electricity.

0:06:04.038,0:06:09.465
We googled it and found[br]a project called "Liter of Light",

0:06:09.465,0:06:13.430
but instead of trying[br]to explain this to you,

0:06:13.430,0:06:17.850
I'd rather show you[br]the video of our first test.

0:06:17.850,0:06:20.768
You can see how it works[br]and I hope you like it.

0:06:20.768,0:06:23.197
[Liter of Light Brazil - Kenya]

0:06:23.197,0:06:25.117
(Music)

0:07:29.497,0:07:31.997
[Before and after results]

0:07:34.534,0:07:36.272
(Video) Three.

0:07:36.272,0:07:37.764
Two.

0:07:38.376,0:07:40.363
One. Go!

0:07:41.943,0:07:43.893
(Cheering)

0:07:45.267,0:07:47.778
Wonderful, wonderful!

0:07:51.351,0:07:53.511
(Applause)

0:08:00.717,0:08:02.407
Vitor Belota: Well, just like you,

0:08:02.407,0:08:04.606
the school director[br]seems to have liked it too.

0:08:04.606,0:08:06.952
He was saying: "Wonderful, wonderful!"[br]at the end.

0:08:06.952,0:08:11.270
Besides him, several other[br]school directors came to visit our school

0:08:11.273,0:08:15.682
to see how the project was done,[br]and ask us to install it in their schools.

0:08:15.682,0:08:18.443
Unfortunately, my Egyptian friend[br]was leaving that week

0:08:18.443,0:08:21.013
and I had to start[br]the project without him.

0:08:21.013,0:08:23.009
I quit teaching through lack of time.

0:08:23.009,0:08:25.430
We'd spend the whole morning[br]preparing the bottles

0:08:25.430,0:08:27.438
and the whole afternoon installing them.

0:08:27.438,0:08:31.555
It wasn't an easy project,[br]we cut and dirtied ourselves a lot.

0:08:31.555,0:08:34.399
We cut ourselves because[br]the aluminum roof was very thin.

0:08:34.399,0:08:36.377
Another problem was food.

0:08:36.377,0:08:42.731
We'd spend the whole morning working,[br]and going up on the roofs was complicated.

0:08:42.731,0:08:45.592
Being so dirty we had to eat[br]something practical,

0:08:45.592,0:08:48.223
which is difficult, for example,[br]with chocolate;

0:08:48.223,0:08:50.243
because I'm up there on the roof,

0:08:50.243,0:08:52.872
a white guy, a "mazungo"[br]as they say in Swahili,

0:08:52.872,0:08:54.762
with all the children staring at me.

0:08:54.762,0:08:59.887
How can you eat chocolate on the roof[br]if they've never seen chocolate before?

0:08:59.887,0:09:01.626
That wouldn't be right.

0:09:01.626,0:09:05.289
So our diet was basically fruit,[br]and to give you an idea,

0:09:05.289,0:09:09.472
at the end of my eight weeks stay[br]I had lost 12 kilos.

0:09:12.403,0:09:16.264
That wasn't my aim, but if you want[br]to work for some social cause

0:09:16.264,0:09:18.095
or lose weight I highly recommend it.

0:09:18.095,0:09:19.572
(Laughter)

0:09:19.572,0:09:22.922
Even with all those difficulties[br]the project kept growing.

0:09:22.929,0:09:25.637
One day, I had the satisfaction of seeing[br]

0:09:25.637,0:09:28.975
my five best friends beside me [br]on top of the roof,

0:09:28.975,0:09:31.645
and below three more friends helping.

0:09:32.075,0:09:35.911
At the end of eight weeks[br]we had helped over 12 schools

0:09:35.911,0:09:39.246
and installed over 140 bottles,[br]including in the interior of Kenya,

0:09:39.249,0:09:42.954
which affected the lives[br]of approximately 3000 students.

0:09:42.954,0:09:48.035
You may be asking,[br]"OK, Vitor, but how did you do that?

0:09:48.035,0:09:49.657
DId you pay for the whole project?

0:09:49.657,0:09:52.147
All those problems,[br]cutting yourselves, and the food;

0:09:52.147,0:09:54.755
how did the exchange students[br]get together to do this?"

0:09:54.755,0:09:58.776
I think the reason was about a feeling,[br]which in order to explain

0:09:58.776,0:10:02.082
I'll need to tell what happened[br]in my last week there.

0:10:02.082,0:10:05.789
We were doing the biggest project so far

0:10:06.644,0:10:11.911
in a school called “Spurgeons", in Kibera,[br]in the largest slum complex in the world.

0:10:11.911,0:10:15.230
In this school alone,[br]we installed 48 bottles.

0:10:15.230,0:10:17.590
This is the finished school.

0:10:18.640,0:10:22.634
One day I was up on the roof[br]and the sky started to turn gray.

0:10:22.637,0:10:24.300
We'd never worked in the rain.

0:10:24.300,0:10:26.820
so I climbed down the ladder[br]and gathered everything.

0:10:26.820,0:10:30.787
As soon as I got down,[br]a teacher who I'd seen a few times there

0:10:30.787,0:10:33.531
took me to show me her classroom.

0:10:35.424,0:10:41.734
She led me to her table opposite the door,[br]right under a lamp we'd just installed.

0:10:42.264,0:10:43.670
And then she said to me,

0:10:43.670,0:10:49.010
"My boy, this is the first time,[br]in the four years I've been working here,

0:10:49.010,0:10:53.017
that I can read or correct[br]an exam in my classroom.

0:10:53.462,0:10:56.821
Thank you, thank you, thank you."

0:10:58.121,0:11:00.519
She said it so naturally,

0:11:01.023,0:11:06.384
but she had no idea[br]how those words would affect me.

0:11:06.384,0:11:11.606
It took about an hour to get home[br]and I was thinking a lot [br]

0:11:11.606,0:11:15.653
about how such a small thing[br]as installing a plastic bottle on a roof

0:11:15.653,0:11:17.975
could make a person feel so grateful.

0:11:18.665,0:11:20.565
You begin to question yourself.

0:11:20.565,0:11:24.423
It wasn't just temporary help,[br]because these bottles last 2-3 years,

0:11:24.423,0:11:26.941
so it impacts many people's lives.

0:11:26.941,0:11:30.718
I got back home where I lived[br]with 21 other exchange students.

0:11:30.718,0:11:34.887
I like to joke that we didn't have dinner,[br]we always had a feast.

0:11:34.887,0:11:36.832
I asked my housemates,

0:11:36.832,0:11:40.200
"Guys, how often in your daily lives

0:11:41.640,0:11:46.562
do you feel unconditionally useful,[br]without wanting anything in return?

0:11:46.562,0:11:47.995
How often?"

0:11:47.995,0:11:51.088
I thought about my daily life. No.

0:11:51.088,0:11:55.096
In my week perhaps? No. Month? No.

0:11:55.726,0:11:59.677
And I reached the frightening conclusion,[br]that at the age of 24

0:11:59.677,0:12:05.180
I'd never felt that way before[br]like that day with the teacher.

0:12:05.835,0:12:10.810
This is what united the exchange students[br]and pupils in this project,

0:12:10.810,0:12:14.657
it was this feeling of being useful.

0:12:14.657,0:12:18.079
Unfortunately, that was my last week[br]before going back to Brazil.

0:12:18.085,0:12:21.894
I remember being at the airport[br]in Johannesburg, South Africa,

0:12:21.894,0:12:26.718
writing my last blog,[br]updating my family about the news.

0:12:27.299,0:12:29.772
My father who knew about my unease,

0:12:29.772,0:12:33.595
which all exchange students[br]and travelers have,

0:12:33.595,0:12:35.868
the idea of going back[br]to your old routine,

0:12:35.868,0:12:38.072
going back to the old life.

0:12:39.154,0:12:42.127
So my father called[br]to reassure me, and said,

0:12:42.127,0:12:46.759
“Son, don't worry, human beings[br]are products of their environment,

0:12:46.763,0:12:48.785
you'll quickly get used to it again."

0:12:48.795,0:12:54.166
It was exactly what I didn’t want to hear,[br]that I had to go back to my world.

0:12:54.166,0:12:58.074
I had just been through this experience,[br]I saw how adaptable humans are.

0:12:58.544,0:13:01.074
My father with his usual pragmatism[br]was right.

0:13:01.074,0:13:05.415
As soon as I arrived in Brazil[br]I got in touch with Illac Diaz,

0:13:05.415,0:13:10.073
president of the organization[br]that had spread the Liter of Light idea,

0:13:10.073,0:13:12.409
asking him if I could start[br]the project in Brazil.

0:13:12.409,0:13:16.831
He said, "Vitor, did you know[br]that the person who invented the idea

0:13:16.831,0:13:18.490
of the solar bottle

0:13:18.490,0:13:22.762
was the Brazilian Alfredo Moser[br]during the 2002 blackouts?"

0:13:22.762,0:13:27.871
He invented it in Sorocaba[br]and Illac had found it amazing.

0:13:28.655,0:13:31.950
He had asked Moser to spread the idea[br]around the globe.

0:13:31.950,0:13:35.116
In the Philippines that year[br]he installed over 500 thousand bottles

0:13:35.116,0:13:37.505
and began to spread the invention[br]around the world.

0:13:37.505,0:13:39.319
He said, "Vitor, of course you can,

0:13:39.319,0:13:42.621
but first show me pictures[br]of your project in Africa."

0:13:42.621,0:13:44.930
I sent him the material,[br]and we got the good news

0:13:44.930,0:13:49.398
that, so far, our team had made[br]the most bottles in Africa.

0:13:50.413,0:13:52.141
And then he told me,

0:13:52.141,0:13:58.261
"Vitor, there's a girl who contacted me[br]wanting to take Liter of Light to Brazil.

0:13:58.261,0:14:01.250
I'll put you two in touch[br]and maybe you can work together."

0:14:01.250,0:14:02.701
I said, "Of course!"

0:14:02.701,0:14:05.437
Then a series of incredible[br]coincidences started

0:14:05.437,0:14:07.697
which brought me where I am today.

0:14:07.697,0:14:12.389
I was born in Brasília,[br]this girl was born in Maranhão,

0:14:12.389,0:14:17.394
and both of us, by coincidence, had lived[br]on an island called Florianópolis.

0:14:17.394,0:14:21.215
She got in touch with me,[br]and the next day we had coffee together.

0:14:21.215,0:14:25.824
I was very curious about how[br]she got to know the project.

0:14:25.824,0:14:29.069
And it was another amazing coincidence

0:14:29.069,0:14:35.120
that she knew of the project when visiting[br]an exchange student, who lived in India,

0:14:35.120,0:14:37.750
the same student[br]at the beginning of the talk

0:14:37.750,0:14:40.271
who made a speech at the university

0:14:40.271,0:14:43.271
and encouraged me[br]to do this trip to Africa.

0:14:43.271,0:14:46.741
When she was visiting Pedro,

0:14:47.151,0:14:50.218
he told her that he had been[br]to an electric power conference

0:14:50.218,0:14:52.137
and had met Illac Diaz in person,

0:14:52.137,0:14:55.989
and that Illac had given him[br]a Liter of Light flag and said,

0:14:55.989,0:14:59.247
"Pedro, take the project[br]when you go to Brazil."

0:14:59.247,0:15:02.540
So they both went back to Brazil[br]eager to create the project,

0:15:02.540,0:15:05.835
although they'd never been up[br]on a roof before.

0:15:05.835,0:15:10.279
But I had many roofs in my curriculum,[br]so as soon as I arrived[br]

0:15:10.279,0:15:16.272
we put together our team [br]in a week to begin working.

0:15:19.211,0:15:23.602
We saw huge potential[br]for the project in Brazil.

0:15:24.612,0:15:30.044
Approximately 2,7 million people in Brazil[br]don't have access to electricity,

0:15:30.044,0:15:31.947
according to the last national census.

0:15:31.947,0:15:38.415
There are also those with access[br]to electricity, but cannot afford it.

0:15:38.415,0:15:41.830
So you might be asking,[br]"OK Vitor, hold on...

0:15:41.830,0:15:46.210
you, Pedro and Alanna,[br]and this team you mentioned.

0:15:46.210,0:15:47.561
Do you all somehow intend

0:15:47.561,0:15:50.543
to climb up every roof[br]in the world to spread this idea?"

0:15:50.543,0:15:52.390
No, we don't have that intention.

0:15:52.390,0:15:58.761
Our goal is to inspire, motivate[br]and teach local leaders

0:15:58.761,0:16:01.389
to spread this idea[br]inside their own communities.

0:16:01.389,0:16:05.183
The same way that I hope to do[br]with at least one of you here.

0:16:05.183,0:16:08.544
After all, I sincerely want to ask you,

0:16:09.097,0:16:12.635
how many times, in your daily lives,

0:16:13.413,0:16:17.291
do you feel unconditionally useful?

0:16:19.783,0:16:21.743
Thank you.

0:16:21.743,0:16:23.765
(Applause)