John: September 2008 Archives

Greetings... this time from the so named 'Travel Lodge Executive Hotel' in Kabwe, a town about two and a half hours north of Lusaka.

Abel, Ben, me, Paul Simon (Global Cool Foundation) and Emmanuel, in Kabwe during site visits.

We arrived here in Kabwe last night after quite an epic series of journeys (totalling around 12 hours) which took us from Lusaka to see three separate institutions which our partners HODI have identified as possible macrosolar installation sites.

On our arrival at the hotel I asked the hotel receptionist 'How is Kabwe?' To which she replied 'in mourning'. She was referring to the fact that the late President Mwanawasa's body was in Kawbe today - he is being flown across the country to allow people to pay their respects.

Yesterday's trip first took us to the town of Masansa (4 -5 hours north of Lusaka) where we met up with Simon and Steven from HODI. Masansa is quite a lively market town as it's the last settlement which is served by the electricity grid in these parts of the world - so it serves as a natural hub of services for the sometimes quite distant surrounding rural areas.

From here we drove for about an hour to the village of Mulungwe which is situated in the Bulungi Hills - a particularly rural, but beautiful part of the world which in some ways reminded me of where I used to live in rural Tanzania. Here we visited the local school which was built back when England were celebrating football glory in the old Wembley stadium in the 60s and met with members of the local community.

Everyone was excited at the prospect of the school receiving a solar installation and they discussed how it would bring benefits such as lights for evening classes and lesson preparation, income generation activities through setting up a phone charging station and also the possibility of running a computer and television which could be used for education, entertainment and again as a way of generating an income which can be used to maintain the system.

Our stay here was all too brief and I would have loved to have spent a day or two getting to know the area and its people better - next time!

Next we headed to Fiwila and the Fiwila Development Trust, a local NGO which was set up to serve the local community. Here we witnessed a lively debate about the area's energy needs and where they, as a community, would like to see solar installation. The results of this discussion were this:

'Our local clinic already has a solar system for some lights and a refrigerator, although ideally we would like a bigger, more powerful, system there. Our local school would also really benefit from a lighting system - as we all would in our homes. If a system in installed at the Fiwila Development Trust Facilities, however, we can use this system to generate an income and save so that we can pay for a school system and perhaps an upgraded clinic system in the future.'

This line of thinking is completely in line with recent programmes discussions we have been having. Macrosolar systems can be introduced as part of a 'solar challenge' which involves setting income-generation targets which can be used to meet 'solar expansion targets,' thus starting solar energy revolutions in each community.

Power is Free!

We'll do all we can at SolarAid to help the people of Fiwila and elsewhere realise these dreams. Any donations we get from people like you, who are reading this blog and interested in helping, will get us closer to realising those dreams.

Thanks,
John.

Today we've been in Mumbwa town and the village of Nakasaka to see a potential solar installation site.

The community in Nakasaka are very eager to have access to solar electricity. They explained that evening light would enable them to run adult literacy classes, to watch television and generate an income by charging car batteries...which are not an uncommon way for people to bring energy into their homes.

As we left Nakasaka on the dusty road, we came across a cyclist who had a 14 watt solar panel strapped to the back of his bike. He explained that he wanted to use it to charge mobile phones - a sign that people are starting to believe in solar energy and what it can do.

In Mumbwa town, we visited the local market and came across a stall selling radios and LED torches, all imported from China. I showed the salesman a microsolar panel and hooked it up to one of his radios and he said he was interested in selling them.

I then took a closer look at his torches and saw that these can be easily charged using microsolar panels. So I bought some to bring home and test to see how good these lights actually are.

While their quality may be questionable, the fact that these lights are for sale demonstrates that there's clearly a demand for cheap lighting products that do not rely on kerosene...or diesel. That's right, kerosene shortages have led to people burning diesel in its place. I'm pretty sure diesel fumes are carcinogenic. Nasty stuff. All the more reason for us to press ahead with microsolar projects.

With your help we can speed up the process...bringing power to more people, giving them independence and access to clean, safe energy to light their homes. The interest and enthusiasm of these people is unquestionable, so we're halfway there. Please help us by donating to this project today.

Thank you,
John