Project: Solar for children

SolarAid has received a donation of 200 solar panels from TÜV Rheinland PTL to be installed on the roofs of health centres and clinics throughout our project regions in rural Tanzania.

Many health clinics use highly toxic kerosene lamps for light, which when inhaled can lead to respiratory disease - one of the leading causes of death in Tanzania. Solar power however, enables clinics to operate 24 hours a day and with clean affordable light - this not only improves working conditions but saves lives and reduces illness.

We have already installed 70 of the panels on 14 health facilities in the Iringa region of central Tanzania. The remaining 130 panels will also be used in Ludewa, Makete, and Kiwango throughout the course of the year.

SolarAid's Head of Programmes, John Keane said:

"The donation from TÜV Rheinland PTL is enabling us to have a direct and positive impact on rural Tanzanian communities, which do not benefit from grid electricity. Together with these communities SolarAid helps to bring light to rural health centres that serve villages for miles around."

TÜV Rheinland PTL is based in Tempe, Arizona. As part of the world's largest solar and photovoltaic testing network the company donate many of their used modules for use by non-profit organisations, such as SolarAid, to expand awareness and share the benefits of renewable energy. Dr. Govindasamy Tamizhmani, president of TÜV Rheinland PTL said:

"I strongly believe that solar photovoltaics will soon become a major contributor of electricity in developing countries."

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.

Douglas Timatu is 36 years old. He's a sculptor and an aspiring script-writer. However, Douglas has another reason to feel happy with his life. He is making a good business for himself by selling Sunny Money products to his community.

Douglas first came across SolarAid by accident, when a friend told him about a seminar that was being held in his hometown of Bagamoyo. Douglas went along to the seminar as he'd always been interested in the use of solar energy for poverty alleviation in his community. Douglas and his family have struggled. He has been victim to much crime and personal loss as a result of severe poverty, so he was very interested to learn about how SolarAid might be able to help.

In the seminar Douglas was introduce to SolarAid's microsolar products. He saw how they worked and learned about their advantages over other lighting means. Douglas was so impressed and excited about the products that he came forward to the SolarAid representative and said he wanted to enter the local villages to sell the products and test the market.

"I found money to buy 20 units in the first instance. I borrowed from friends and family, then after I sold the first 10 products I was able to buy a bicycle. This enabled me to reach further villages and travel around at no cost. I was saving money on hiring bikes, motorbikes or dala dala (minibus) journeys. I then sold the remaining 10 products very quickly and was able to pay back the loan to my friends"

Douglas, with his newly-acquired bike, holding a Ravi solar light.

Douglas's optimism and ambition is clear:

"There is a big demand for these products. I have 21 prospective customers who want them and are currently saving up".

More about Douglas and his customers in my next update.

In my last blog, I wrote about our trip to the very remote Changalikwa Secondary School where we stayed for one night. SolarAid volunteer Charlotte and I were hosted by the Deputy Headmistress of Changalikwa, Mrs Gabwara, in her home on the school campus. We felt both honoured and humbled to be offered Mrs Gabwara's main bedroom for the night. Mrs Gabwara lives here with her husband and four children. Her sister, who is recently widowed with two very young children, also lives here.

The house was small for nine people with just two bedrooms, a living room, washroom and kitchen.

Mrs Gabwara led us through to the bedroom by the light of a tin lamp. She had kindly heated some water for us to wash with and for our comfort she left the tin lamp on the floor of the hallway between the bedroom and the washroom.

Now, this lamp was to burn all night - a beacon of light to help us to see our way - yet a toxic reminder to me of how nasty these things are. All night, I was deeply aware of the acrid smell of kerosene oil burning, despite having a closed door between me and it. I couldn't help but cough and splutter every time I passed through the hallway. The black smoke pouring out of it was both eye-opening and eye-stinging, as it burned in the darkness. The light this lamp provided was poor - more of a dim glow - just enough to see the contours of the room and illuminate doorways into more darkened rooms.

This was a poignant reminder to me; a reminder that Mrs Gabwara, her family and extended family, together with millions of other rural Africans have no choice but to rely on this lethal, unpleasant and polluting form of light every night, all year round. I experienced just one night of inhaling kerosene fumes. I was relieved it was just one night but it was a sobering, humbling realisation of how very lucky I was.

To help SolarAid in its mission to eliminate the burning of kerosene for lighting homes please support this project.

We are delighted and very proud to announce the arrival of 7000 brand new micro-solar Ravi products to our Tanzanian office based in Dar es Salaam.

The Ravi is SunnyMoney branded and an upgraded version of previous micro-solar products such as the Kadzuwa. Its primary aim is to work as a portable device that uses energy from the Sun as power for light.

From left to right: staff members, Stephen Chimallo, Dave Fryer and Claire Pedersen stand exhausted after ravis are stockpiled in their office.

A diverse piece of kit, the Ravi can be used as a hand held torch, desk lamp or even to charge mobile phones. Improvements include a new 1.5 watt solar panel with a life expectancy of 10 years and an 18 LED light bulb capable of lighting a 4 x 4 metre room with clean and bright light. Each bulb can last 10,000 hours (that's four years!) if left on for seven hours a day.

In order to make the device more efficient we have also included a light which signals to the user when batteries are fully charged and also when they are low. This system is a fantasic innovation which should increase battery life for up to two years.

The Ravi complet with bulb, solar panel and mobile phone charger.

It is a very cost effective product for consumers because within three months of purchasing a Ravi, a household's kerosene costs previously used to light the home will be reduced from up to 20% of family income to near zero. This has a tremendous impact on the everyday lives of rural people.

It has taken months of planning for the Ravi to reach Tanzania in such bulk; now we have them in place we can begin to implement their distribution throughout our programmes and eliminate the use of harmful and polluting kerosene lamps for many more of the world's poorest communities.

We arrived at Changalikwa Secondary School at dusk. It transpired the next day that we'd inadvertently reached the school via an unofficial (and extremely overgrown) back entrance. But we reached it nonetheless.

Visiting Changalikwa was to be a particularly interesting experience for me personally. We were to stay the night here, which would of course mean experiencing the solar lighting in use after dark!

ABOVE: SolarAid's Mason Huffine talks to the Headmistress, backlit by the classroom with solar lighting.

Changalikwa Secondary School is very respected by the President of Tanzania who was born in the district and still owns property there. It has 1250 students and just 10 teachers, one of whom is a volunteer.

Through the President's support, the school received funding some years ago for two generators. These generators had been the sole energy source for Changilikwa prior to the solar installation. Keeping them running had been a real challenge. The generators were very unreliable, polluting and fearfully expensive, using 20 litres of diesel per week, at a cost of 860,000 shillings per month to the school (about £430).

Too poor for secondary school
In Tanzania, primary education is free so the majority of children attend. However, secondary education is not compulsory and is subject to school fees. The day we visited Changalikwa was officially the first day of the new term. However, there was just a handful of students present. When asked why this was, the Headmaster told me:

"The students must only return once they have paid the fees for the term. The students you see here are ones who have paid their fees."

I realised that the vast and alarming majority of parents were not in a position financially to send their children back to school. There were just nine students present, meaning that 1241 others were at home still, unable to come back for classes.

"It can take weeks into a new term before we have all the students present, as it takes families time to save up for the school fees. Some children sadly never return."

ABOVE: a classroom at Changalikwa is illuminated by the solar lighting system.

Then there was solar light...
When Changalikwa relied on its generators the school would economise on fuel by only allowing light for homework for three hours each evening. With the arrival of solar, the school can now offer its students as many hours of additional study as they want. The generators are still used to power some classrooms and staff housing, but it now only costs the school 300,000 shillings per month on diesel (around £140. That's a saving of £300 per month!).

The fees have subsequently been reduced now that the school doesn't rely wholly on diesel. It used to cost each student 100,000 shillings for fuel (along with teaching fees, boarding, food etc) but now the fuel cost to each student is just 5000 shillings (£2.50). This also contributes to running costs of the solar.

Like at many similar schools, Changalikwa students used to have to buy their own lamps and kerosene. Now there is no need and the students' families are saving money.

Students of Changalikwa in a classroom illuminated by the solar lighting system.

The school is extremely remote and isolated so all staff live on site. In the past, new teachers would often leave after a couple of terms, finding the lack of power together with the remoteness too much. But the solar has had a positive impact on staff moral. Teachers can do their marking and lesson planning well into the evening, in the comfort of an illuminated staff room.

To top it all, the school has enjoyed a massive improvement in exam results and has moved up the league in the schools table from near the bottom - 335 out of 364 - to a very impressive 191 out of 574! Security has also improved substantially across the campus and the school now plans to buy a computer. Not surprisingly, enrollment has also increased.

More about my stay at Changalikwa in my next blog.
Anna

Using the power of human GPS (involving asking villagers for directions as we pass them) we eventually arrived at Kibindu Secondary School in the heat of the late afternoon sun. This school is one of the most remote I've seen during my trip into rural Tanzania. It's about six hours north west of Dar es Salaam and proved to be very well-hidden, off a sub-track of a slightly less minor dusty road.

Kibindu Secondary School has 452 students. Amazing, considering it has just seven classrooms and nine teachers. The students are aged from 13 to 24 years. As well as being incredibly remote, its facilities are basic and the community which the school serves is very poor. But Kibindu has a reason to be hopeful about the future - a 240W solar system on its roof; bringing light to all seven classrooms.

The school no longer needs to spend money on kerosene, candles or batteries for torches like it did six months ago, before the installation. The high number of students at the school is partly due to the reduced school fees - owing to the fact that students no longer have to contribute to the cost of kerosene.

The Head Teacher, Mr Benedict, was thrilled to tell us that he'd seen a dramatic increase in exam pass rates since the solar installation. He also told us that student attendance has increased as there has been a huge drop in bronchitis and other respiratory diseases, since the school put a stop to the use of candles and lanterns, for good, six months ago.

The school offers a phone charging service to the community - charging 300Tsh per charge (about 13p).

Local villagers are intrigued, as well as proud, to have a building in their community with light. Mr Benedict told us that people come to the school at night just to see it lit up.

"It looks so nice at night time" he told us. "It's the only light for miles and miles. We are like a beacon in the community now!"

Head Teacher Mr Benedict proudly switches on the lights in a classroom at Kibindu.

The view from the very remote Kibindu Secondary School. Photo by Charlotte Webster.

Day 12 of David Fryer and Mason Huffine's Lindi mission

While Mason and I begin training, the installers are still very busy. Sleeping on site with little food or clean water and working from sunrise to sunset, they are starving but never complain - what great guys.

Installers fit a macrosolar system to a school roof.

The next day we bring rice, beans, water, nuts and juice with us. One of the teachers' house-girls uses the ingredients to cook a much needed meal for the Installers. Refuelled, they install six more systems within three days.

Meanwhile, Mason and I get on with installing microsolar study lights in the dormitories. It surprised me how many dead scorpions there were. I was later informed that when Dennis surveyed the school he was bitten by a snake and had to go to hospital

With the installation complete we leave to Mnara. It is raining hard when we hit the road making the off road driving conditions even harder.

It's early Saturday morning. Stephen and I have finished packing and are about to leave for 16 days of school surveys, solar installations and dirt roads. It's a race against time, a race against the rainy season and a race against the schools' Christmas holiday. Mason looks at the map one last time before we set off, "wooooh, now that is one ambitious plan, good luck guys."

A map showing the upcoming installations in schools across rural Tanzania.

As each day rolls into the next we cover hundreds of miles of dirt road, but the enthusiasm, the hope and the pleading of elated teachers at the sight of a SolarAid vehicle keep our focus.

Farm 17 is a school located 7km from the nearest town, Nachingwea. As a converted army base Farm 17 has had to endure tough times since forces left and took the underground water pipes with them. Money and food is tight here. Dedicated teenage boys now cycle back and forth 100 km or more to bore holes and rivers, holding large plastic oil drums to collect water. Food is scarce and most is gathered from the local mango farm.

With the rainy season upon us the adverse effects will cause many mud built houses to collapse. The saving grace is that in three to six weeks they will be able to harvest crops again!

The Times newspaper has chosen to feature SolarAid as one of its three charities in its Christmas Appeal. This is really exciting news.

The Times team landed in Tanzania early in the morning. They were: Matthew Syed; the reporter and Ben Gurr; the photographer. Soon after arriving at the SolarAid office in Dar es Salaam we all set off to Homboza to visit Mshikamo Christian Women's Action for Development (MCWAD). Their mission is to support women with HIV and help put orphaned children into education. Working with SolarAid, the group has set up a micro-solar franchise to increase the profits they can channel into their cause to help more marginalised women and children.

Times journalist Matthew Syed meets villagers in Homboza. Photo © Ben Gurr / The Times.

The leader of the village had called a meeting in anticipation of our arrival. There was a presentation of the Christian organisation after which I was invited to give an unexpected presentation - in my faltering Swahili. This was received with some laughter and was followed by a series of presentations and demonstrations on solar panels.

One lady from the village, Hadija Mohammed, animatedly demonstrated how easy it is to charge and connect the solar kit explaining how excited she is to be using the micro-solar panels. She told us that she had previously spent 300 shillings a day on kerosene. Now she spends nothing on kerosene, so she's saving a lot of money, as well having a strong light in her house at night. Much better than the kerosene lamp. Hadija then demonstrated how the kit can be used to power a radio.

A young girl watches The Times team at work in Homboza, Tanzania. Photo © Ben Gurr / The Times.

The team showed one villager how to attach the leads to extend them in order to light more than one room. A great scheme set up with this particular group is the saving scheme, whereby the villagers can pay for their solar kits in instalments. This is not a service that the MCWAD would normally offer, however the leader of the village has agreed to be a guarantor for the whole village.

Since May, they have sold 80 micro-solar units in this one village. That's pretty impressive.

More updates soon...