Repairing a light switch is a simple job for an IBEW member. But for Asa Shenandoah and Jim Beck, performing that task at an orphanage in Peru was life-changing work.

"Electrical failures here aren't simply an inconvenience. They're a barrier to care, safety and dignity," said Shenandoah, a member of Syracuse, N.Y., Local 1249. "Our work, routine in one context, can transform lives."

Shenandoah traveled with Beck, a retired member of Philadelphia Local 98, to Peru last November to volunteer with Electrical Workers Without Borders North America. A nonprofit founded by International President Edwin D. Hill in 2016, EWWBNA sends members all over the world to share their skills with communities in need.

Sometimes, as in Peru, the members work alongside volunteer electricians from sister organizations like Electrical Workers Without Borders Italy. In all cases, they make a real difference.

They also return home with a profound sense of fulfillment.

"It opens your heart wider than you ever thought possible," said Beck, who's been to Peru three times.

Beck and Shenandoah's two-week trip took them to Peru's capital city of Lima and to Huacho, about 90 miles north. They worked on electrical upgrades at a preschool in Huacho and at the Asociación de las Bienaventuranzas near Lima, which provides housing, food, education and health care for orphans and abandoned adults with mental and physical disabilities. The locations were in dire need of repairs, Beck and Shenandoah said.

"There were places with wires hanging off the walls. A lot of what we did was just making things safe," said Shenandoah, a journeyman lineworker.

At one point, Shenandoah was repairing a light switch in a closet that held toiletries and other supplies. It was completely dark until she installed the fixture. Once she did, the room, which had filled with residents from the dormitory while she worked, erupted in applause.

"For us, the work isn't a big deal. But for them, I made their job so much easier just by putting in a light bulb," Shenandoah said. "They were so happy some of them were putting stickers on my face."

As a lineworker, Shenandoah doesn't do inside work. She builds power lines. She also does a lot of storm restoration, which comes with its own sense of satisfaction. But the work in Peru is on another level, she said.

"It's like taking an antidepressant," she said. "It gives you such a perspective change."

Shenandoah, who has volunteered in different capacities in Syracuse, said she was taken with how little the people they were helping had, and yet they still gave all they could.

"There's a full circle of help happening there. It's an oasis of humanity," she said. "The people we met showed how you can be stripped of all but the essentials and still manage to laugh and love."

Beck, who's been retired for about 2½ years, made his first trip to Peru about 14 years ago with a different organization, which then led to a contractor asking him to head down and check on a solar array that EWWBNA had installed with EWWB Italy. While there, he also made some inroads on finding locals interested in learning the trade, something EWWBNA has encouraged.

"We want to build capacity through training, giving local apprentices the opportunity to learn from our volunteers," said Jim O'Leary, EWWBNA executive director.

O'Leary said that by installing a 10-kilowatt solar array, they were able to reduce the Asociación's electrical bill by $1,000 a month.

"Putting in lights is life-changing," O'Leary said. "This work opens your eyes up to the world and all we take for granted."

Those simple repairs make a profound impact on the volunteers, too.

"I've never had a volunteer come back with a negative experience. They come home better people, better members, even leaders," O'Leary said. "It's an educational experience they can't get in the classroom, and it will stay with them their whole lives."

EWWBNA has also done work in Angola, Kenya, Haiti, St. Kitts and Suriname, and it has an ongoing project with the Navajo Nation. The nation, which covers an area larger than West Virginia, has thousands of homes not connected to the grid.

"It's a really important project of ours," O'Leary said. "So many of the houses in the U.S. without electrical are Navajo. It's incredible to have that many here."

Beck and Shenandoah encourage any IBEW member who's interested in giving back to check out EWWBNA, which can be done through their local union.

"Probably the vast majority of members don't know about the great work EWWBNA is doing, and it's such a wonderful thing," Beck said. "We're so lucky as IBEW members. Why not do more than just get a paycheck and share what you've learned? Even if we only get to a small portion of world, it will make a big impact."