Chole Island becomes a solar island

We are thrilled to announce that last week, on Saturday 5 June, SolarAid Tanzania completed an amazing installation of solar power for the whole of Chole Island, bringing renewable power to over 1000 habitants.

The Tanzania team worked with Coastal Air to get the solar panels and equipment over to Chole, a small island off the larger island of Mafia, which sits just off the coast of Tanzania.

A warm welcome from Islanders as the SolarAid team arrive with panels and equipment ready for the installation

Chole Island has no national grid power, and is unlikely to ever have access to it. The SolarAid team worked with local contractors to install solar lighting systems in a health centre, community centre and a secondary school on the island.

A community event: all island occupants helped with getting the equipment from the landing point to the centre of the island.

An investment for an entire community
SolarAid Tanzania also worked closely with their contractors to train local people on Chole in how to maintain and monitor their systems, to ensure they work to their maximum potential and are ultimately more sustainable.

Training locals about the system installed on a health centre. Meeting held under the Baobab tree!

Introducing Farihani
As part of the Chole Island project, SolarAid has also recruited a local SunnyMoney representative, Farihani Shomari. Farihani, who also works as a fundi (or handyman) in a hotel on the island, has already sold an impressive 37 products in just two months!

SunnyMoney Sales Rep Farahani Shomari (left) and his family, enjoy bright, solar-powered lighting in their home for the first time.

Farahani has also installed a few larger solar systems with SolarAid. He was one of three candidates who applied for the position of SunnyMoney sales rep, and has since been involved too in the training on the macro installations we completed on the island. Farahani is a fast learner and very hard working so we're thrilled to have him on the team.

The next generation of solar installers; children from Chole Island.

SolarAid and the team working on the project would like to extend a big thank you to all habitants of Chole Island, for their ambition to be energy independent!

SolarAid would also like to thank The Times and its readers, without whom we would not be able to reach so many people in Tanzania. And the contact for this project came from a reader who had originally seen a piece about SolarAid during The Times Christmas Appeal in December last year.

Some of the team of engineers and trainees who worked on the installations.

Here are some more photos from this exciting project...

Installation taking place on a clinic on Chole.

A brand new solar system, inside the clinic.

Nurses working inside the clinic, which is now fitted with lights.

A family on Chole Island enjoy solar-powered electric light in their home for the first time.

A curious young boy looks at the panels which arrived on Chole Island for the installation.