May 2009 Archives

We're happy to report that we're right on track with our first year goals in Zambia! At the end of this week, the sixteenth macro-solar panel in a rural district and seventh new panel on an Eastern Province school in a week, will have been installed.

Some ways in which the panels are helping to generate income for the communities are through mobile phone charging and the selling of tickets for film screenings on DVD. This income is vital to the schools as it gives them a much-needed cash injection to buy ingredients for the childrens' lunches.

In fact, the last two weeks have gone a long way, with ten new franchisees trained and in operation with micro-solar products. Some of the roadblocks in the micro-franchisee training has been dealing with illiteracy and suspected dyslexia. Our teachers are giving those with difficulties extra attention and helping them. We are currently updating our training material to make it more understandable with the use of more visuals.

With the first year targets having now been achieved, we are re-evaluating our macro-solar programme to see how we can reach more schools and communities in the second year. We need funds to increase the number of people we can reach, so please support us today.

Thank you

This update follows on from my last post...

As we drove on, George described some of the work that children can become involved in:

"Children as young as 5 years old start on 'cultivation' - that's preparing seedlings for planting. And 'waiting' - carrying seedlings for transplant into the fields. As they get older, they take on heavier work such as weeding and spraying, usually with no protection".

But children can find themselves in the fields well before their fifth birthday. Further along the track, women were spraying the tobacco plants with pesticides, their babies tied onto their backs, exposing both to dangerous chemicals. "They have no choice, but no one seems to really care" George continued.

HODI's work with SolarAid is part of 'Phase One' of their ECLT programme, which aims to address the effects and impacts of the use of child labour. Making access to education as easy as possible is key. And SolarAid is helping HODI to achieve this by installing solar power systems on a number of schools and training centres in the area. Tara Basic School and Kalonda Basic School are two of the five sites that were identified by HODI and SolarAid in August 2008. Both schools were fitted with solar installations early in November 2008 and teachers and pupils there are starting to understand the benefits that these systems can bring.

At the Tara Basic School, headmistress Fay Mabulo explained how the two classrooms lit by solar power are being used by teachers for lesson preparation as well as being made available to pupils for evening study between seven and eight o'clock. The lights are so popular that the school has now drawn up a timetable for their use to make sure that as many people as possible have access.

Andy Bodycombe

Photos: Andy Bodycombe

TOP: Pupils of Tara Basic School in Zambia work under the light which is powered by solar.

RIGHT: A pupil stands outside Kalonda School in Zambia which, like Tara Basic School, recently had a macro-solar system installsed on the roof.