Project: Zambia community centres

I am delighted to announce that we have met our target of 31 macrosolar installations by May 31. Since the Zambian programme began in July 2008 we have been aware that only 2% of rural people have access to the electricity grid. So with every solar installation we provide to schools, health and community centres it makes us very proud to create power where otherwise there would be none.

Success stories in the field are encouraging as are those within our team. Macrosolar Team Leader William, for example, started out as a local handyman. Married with two children, William's obvious talent and hard-working ethos granted us the opportunity to employ him as designer of the Zam Lamp microsolar product in 2009. There are now 200 of these household lights in use across rural Zambia even though newer devices such as the Ravi are now in place.

William's entrepreneurial attitude has helped increase his skill base and he now has a thorough understanding of much larger macrosolar systems. His fast progression means that he now leads our macrosolar team. However William still finds the time to respond to microsolar queries when given the opportunity. Indeed William's quickly acquired working knowledge and experience in both macro and micro solar operations has been vital to our success in meeting targets and bringing light to those who need it most

More news and developments soon.

Trevor

The message coming from Simungoma School was clear - "we want light for the future." And we are certainly here to realise that need. Once complete, the installation in Western Zambia will not only benefit the school but also the local community who will have access to a mobile phone charging station. Tomorrow though we'll hit the road again, but as I look to the sky the weather is looking decidedly stubborn.

Councillor and Deputy Head Mrs Florence Sililo Makando of Simungoma School (right) with SolarAid volunteer William Kaitante.

Heading out tomorrow will be tricky, the rains have not yet abated, the thunderstorms are still coming through and the streams and lowlands are flooded. The tracks we'll take en-route to the school site pass the beautiful Mopane Cathedral, before entering fairly treacherous flat and grasslands. We have managed so far though, even with the wheels of the Landrover often submerged in water. Some flatlands however will remain impassable until the water has dried up, even with the Landrover's traction control.

We have sand ladders and ropes at the ready and will manage the few troublesome spots, even if that means some digging and pushing along the way!

Last night we'd just got into our tents when the huge storm that had been threatening us all day finally started with avengeance.

More soon

Trevor

The extended rainy season finally appears to be relenting. This is great news for us since many rural roads have been impassable lately. The clinics and schools we evaluate and install with solar power are in the shadow of development and extremely hard to reach at the best of times. Now that the rain has stopped, however, we can hit the road again en-route to Sesheke district 800 kilometres away. Outside I can hear my SolarAid colleagues using the break in the weather to load the jeep in preparation for the first of four school installations this week! Some of these schools can be as far as 30km off the tar road, so we're expecting a bumpy time of it.

The SolarAid team en-route to Sesheke district with five macrosolar panels.

Later this week we will be visiting three schools on the west bank of the Zambezi River, including Lusus, an area famous in the region for the death of a British missionary in 1883. The missionary capsized his dugout canoe while visiting the local leader to request permission for activity. This story is still told 127 years on, and amazingly, in that time the region has hardly changed in terms of development. I am looking forward to a successful installation and to discover more about this famous missionary!

More soon,

Trevor

I've been very busy since Christmas evaluating and targeting 17 schools for macrosolar installation. Our macrosolar systems use clean and renewable energy to light schools and allow students to work into the evening in an improved learning environment.

With just two weeks spent in the office since mid-December I have been adapting to life on the road, and with 74 dialects to decipher, this vast country keeps me on my toes. Indeed, as I travel from one location to the next each day offers fresh challenges from basic communication to the installation itself.

I am currently working with colleagues at Imusho School in Sesheke district. With a population of over 200 pupils and set in the heart of Sioma National Park, the lack of farmland and industry means that resources are few and far between. In fact, Imusho is one of the most rural schools I have worked with. A full two days travel from the nearest town Sesheke; this is where they must travel to collect resources such as kerosene for conventional lighting. Solar power will enhance the classroom environment and minimise the need to make this journey.

To put it in perspective, the 40km trip to Sesheke means an Ox cart ride to the Namibian border, hitching a lift to Katima Mulilo and a six to eight hour trip back into Zambia via the Zambezi River. Only then do you reach Sesheke town. The fact that it is the rainy season makes this journey all the more treacherous and exhausting.

We are all hoping to have a macrosolar installation operating in Inusho School very soon. In fact the next few months are going to be even busier, with 30 installations predicted by the end of May. 21 of these in Sesheke district alone.

More news when I have Internet access!

Please support our Zambian project and make a donation here.

The first ever Zambian solar installation training course took place at the Pumulani Renewable Energy Centre today. This is fantastic news and we thank founders Laureijs and Gerda Smulders for putting this dream in motion as a private venture many years ago.

Laureis Smulders training Installers at the Pumulani Renewable Energy Centre.

SolarAid will be training up to 12 Installers in the coming months, providing extra support to the existing Macro Solar systems and meeting the demands of hard-to-reach rural areas.

SolarAid Zambia has identified 12 new locations and plans to install 30 systems by the end of May. This will bring the total number of installations to 46. Present funding will allow us to install 76 installations by mid 2011. However, with the revolution in LED technology we hope to install an even greater number!

Please support us today as we strive to establish solar power throughout Zambia.

During my extended trip visting our programmes, I spent 5 days in Zambia where, apart from tasting local delicacies like Billtong (something a little like beef jerky), much has been happening.

We've luckily acquired a number of solar panels which are looking for worthy homes, so we are scouting in Eastern and Northern Zambia for new school sites. And because we are ambitious here at SolarAid, our goal is to have completed nine installations by the end of the year!

The photo below shows one of the schools where we hope to install solar. This is Chamandala Basic School in the Chadiza district.

The other evening we carried our dinner in the back of the car. The cockerel was flapping around in the back of the car, making the thought of eating it a little less inviting, but we were extremely grateful for this wholesome meal nonetheless.

Hopefully some more updates soon from Zambia.

Exciting times in Zambia where the team have designed and built the first prototype charging stations, which entrepreneurs will use to charge mobile phones. The ever-increasing popularity of mobile phones, coupled with limited access to electricity, should prove to be a recipe for commercial success for these stations, which have been sized to charge up to 20 phones a day.

Entrepreneurs will supplement their income through the sale of mobile 'talk time'. Watch this space as we develop this idea further and for more interesting solar developments in Zambia.

The new mobile phone charging station which has been developmed in Zambia for small businesses.

SolarAid Zambia's Country Business Manager, Trevor Robson, recently visited the London office. It was great for the London team to meet Trevor - some of them for the first time - and hear about plans for scaling up our work Zambia.

Trevor told us about a teacher he recently met; a real gem as far as SolarAid is concerned. The teacher is called Charles. He is one of our key contacts for SolarAid's micro-franchise work in Zambia.

Charles, who is based in the Eastern provinces, bordering Mozambique and Malawi, has been working with the village Chief, Jerry. Chief Jerry is another key member of the community, who is passionate about giving as much back to his community as he can. Unlike some Chiefs in Zambia and across Africa - he is not interested in self-promotion. This Chief puts his community first and foremost.

Community builders
Charles and the Chief are working together to build a school. They hope to work with SolarAid to install a small solar system on the school for lighting. Close to the school, there is a primary care community clinic. This clinic is extremely basic with no running water. As a result, hygiene standards are very low. Sadly, the lack of water is a very common problem in rural clinics such as this one.

Charles, the Chief and Trevor have been discussing the possibility of building a solar-powered water pump between the school and the clinic, servicing the two buildings, with one water tank for each. The team also hope to fit a solar system directly onto the clinic to power a vaccine fridge.

Meeting the needs of the remotest communities
The school and the clinic are about 18K apart. Although this may sound like a sizable distance, it is important to understand the level of isolation of these communities. Both the school and the clinic are more than 80K (about 50 miles) away from the nearest mains power supply. That's pretty remote. And with poor soil quality, little rain fall and terrible road networks; there is little opportunity for these communities to generate income. But with solar, things could change.

Our team in Zambia are hoping to meet soon with an organisation called Zambia Open Community Schools. They work with rural schools across Zambia and we hope that there could be a good potential partnership with SolarAid in the future.

Product testing
A product will be arriving in country soon for thorough testing amongst our micro-franchisees. This is a new product with multi-functional capabilities. It will be able to charge mobile phones, power LED lights and potentially a radio. The testing will take place over a 12 week period. Our franchisees participating in the testing process will keep a log of how they used the products, the benefits, disadvantages, faults and usability. At the end of assessment, our franchisees will complete a questionnaire which will give them an opportunity to express their views and decide if the product is viable and ready for the market.

Reaching remote areas with solar on wheels
The Zambia team hopes to experiment with macro-solar in a number of ways in the near future. One avenue being explored is the use of smaller panels used on portable charging and power providers.

The picture above shows the 'Solar Roller' developed by Firefly Solar and SolarAid together. This product was designed for UK events to offer solar-powered phone charging to members of the public as part of a fund and awareness-raising exercise. There is hope to further develop this product for use in Zambia and beyond, as a means of bringing power to very rural areas. Watch this space!

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