SolarAid goes along to the Open Day at Mzuzu University

Last Saturday we took part in an Open Day at Mzuzu University. It was a great success, both for the organising department TECRET (Testing and Training Centre for Renewable Energy Technologies) and for SolarAid.

We had people from Ungweru Youth Group, Technical College, SJOG (St John's of God), and several sales people also came along to help out- Brave, a sales person from Ungweru came to give technical and commercial advice and information to visitors. Two students from Technical College demonstrated the assembly of paraffin lamp conversion LED units and two members of Ungweru were converting light bulbs. There were solar panel demonstrations and light products were on display in a 'dark box'.

This is a 'dark box', inside which the SolarAid light products were being displayed.

We also held a competition! We invited visitors to come up with ideas for a brand name for our products. The prize was a complete solar package: a solar panel, 3 batteries, a converted light bulb and a parffin lamp conversion LED unit.

The jury deciding the winning brand idea was a trio of specialists, consisting of Maxon (SolarAid trustee and head of TECRET), Harry (Head of the Electricity Department at Technical College), and Brave (Head of Ungweru and our top sales person!).

There were in fact two winners; one for the solar panels and one for the light products. Look at the picture below to see one of our new brand names!

Our new brand name: Kadzuwa Muuni.

It was interesting to see how the SolarAid team could stay in the background during the open day, offering minimum input during the event. This showed us that local people are enthusiastic and very capable of promoting the projects they're involved in.

Visitors at the Open Day at Mzuzu University.

Also, some interesting contacts were made. Dave met some people interested in our project and the products.

I have also designed a new product with the 0.3 watt panel. It's very simple to make with elastic, Velcro and glue. We'll give our sales people sample products to go and demonstrate with out and about. Our market would predominantly be taxi bikes and young people.

That's all for now,

Carl

Some participants at the Open Day, putting together solar panels.