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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

Halfway between Choma and Kalondo, on the main road between Lusaka and Livingstone, a huge white stone sign declares 'education is a tool in life'. An older sign lays crumbling in its shadow but the bright new marker points to the start of the 4km dirt road towards the 'Tara Basic School'.

I was being driven by George Hamasunga, a programme manager with the Zambian NGO 'HODI', to see two examples of the work they were doing with SolarAid in the southern districts of Choma and Kalondo.

George has been based in Choma with HODI for three years, after working for six years in Lusaka at the Ministry of Finance and, more recently, on EU-funded micro-projects.

George's new home area is also home to a large number of small to medium sized tobacco farms. As we drove towards the Tara school, George explained why HODI were focussing on the region. He manages HODI's work under the 'ECLT' programme: the Elimination of Child Labour in Tobacco farming. The Switzerland-based foundation's members include well-known and infamous names such as Alliance One, British American Tobacco and Universal Leaf. Its simple aim - to combat the use of child labour in tobacco growing.

As we continued along the dirt track, partly flooded from the continuing heavy rains, George pointed out a young boy working in a field near the track, pulling up weeds from between the large leafed tobacco plants. He stopped the car and called over one of the labourers working in the same field. He asked the man if he knew the boy's parents and whether the boy was attending school. Not a lecture, but an example of HODI's well-practiced gentle pressure aimed at raising awareness of the importance of education.

More from me soon,
Andy Bodycombe.

Photos: Andy Bodycombe

The 'Pumulani' Renewable Energy Centre ('Pumulani' means 'rest well') is the idea of Gerde and Laureijs Smulders, co-founders and directors of Suntech Appropriate Technology Ltd, a renewable energy company established in Zambia since 1993.

Gerde (left) and Lawrence Smulders of Suntech, stand beneath the steel frame and roof that will be the 'Pumulani Renewable Energy Training Centre'. Photo: Andy Bodycombe

Over the past year, Suntech have been working with SolarAid in Zambia on the design and installation of solar installations on schools, community centres and clinics as part of SolarAid's Global Cool funded macrosolar programme.

Suntech's experience of working in Zambia is extremely valuable to SolarAid and highlights one of the key challenges we face that all too often, solar power systems installed in developing countries by donor organisations can be perceived as unreliable. According to Gerde 'every solar system which doesn't work is bad for us even if it wasn't from us. We just want to save costs for the people'.

Suntech hope to address these problems by tackling them head on and, at the same time, addressing some of the root causes.

More about this in our next blog

Two locations for macro installations have recently been identified as Chipata- near the Malawian border- and Infuro. The new sites within these areas will include schools, community and training centres. Things should start moving quickly now, with a proposed seven installations scheduled for completion by the end of May!

Rural Zambia

In micro-solar, the team is waiting for a large import order of 2000 products to arrive. Once these are on the ground, production and training will start in Shesheke- a very poor and remote area in the South West of Zambia.

WIth your help, SolarAid can work effectively towards faster reduction of carbon emissions, improved health for the most disadvantaged people of Zambia and increased literacy rates through access to clean and affordable lighting. Please help us with whatever donation you can.

Thank you.

More news from Zambia soon.

Trevor Robson, SolarAid Zambia's new Country Business Manager

Over the last few weeks, Trevor has been travelling around south western Zambia identifying possible areas that are well-suited to setting up micro-solar projects.

One area in particular, Sesheke- near the border with Namibia- seems to have a particular need for such a project. Like many rural areas in Zambia, it is far away from any connection to grid power; it's very poor and incredibly remote. Food production is very seasonal a therefore so is the average income.

Together with SolarAid's photojournalist, Andy Bodycombe, Trevor has also been revisiting sites in the Choma region where we have previously installed macro-solar panels on schools and skills centre. All of the installations are fully-functional and servicing the respective communities very well.

As a new member of the team, Trevor has been impressed to see SolarAid's ability to reach into rural and remote areas, leaving a long-lasting and sustainable impact.

More from the Zambia team soon!

Our team of eight, recently recruited in Mumbwa.

The team are all technically competant and see strong potential in microsolar in their region, Mumbwa. They have some business experience (including sourcing of materials and product distribution) and the best part is they seem really eager to develop a micro-solar businesses!

Three of the eight partipants make up Felix's carpentary workshop, who have shown particular enthusiasm and excitement about expanding into microsolar.

Market research and product tests
During our field trip to Mumbwa, we carried out some basic micro-solar market research on a number of lantern models and the product which had the most positive feedback was the 'made in Zambia' version!

Lantern line-up! SolarAid Zambia's own model is the second from the left

We also did some basic product quality testing, and the guys conducted overnight tests on all models. Again, it was the 'made in Zambia' product which produced the best quality and intensity of light. There is, of course, still room for improvement with our current prototype but it's great to know we're heading along the right path!

Get involved
Be part of the solar movement! Please support us in our mission to help some of the poorest people in Zambia to have affordable, clean energy and help them generate their own income at the same time.

Our team of entrepreneurs test the products in the dark.

Felix assembles a solar lantern from locally sourced materials during a microsolar production workshop in Mumbwa.

His parents and older brothers have passed away, leaving Felix as head of a ten-person household. Felix is a self-employed carpenter and joiner, and also dabbles in brick-laying and painting.

Together with some friends he runs a carpentry business in town, and produces "anything" in wood for his customers - including double beds. The question was begging.... "How do you distribute a double bed to your customers who live many kilometres away in rural villages?" The answer is simple: on a wheelbarrow.

From left to right: Brian, Felix and Adonjah in their carpentry workshop discussing ideas about expanding into the microsolar business.

Felix's carpentry workshop, now in its third year, is typical of millions of small businesses in Africa: with no access to capital, limited tools and facilities, and bucket loads of gumption - somehow the business gets done.

During my six-month assignment in Zambia, one of the key challenges put to me has been to "find a distribution strategy for micro-solar products in rural Zambia". When I think of Felix distributing his double beds by wheelbarrow - it occurs to me that Felix is probably far better placed than I am to answer this crucial question for SolarAid.

Lackson, Reagan and Felix test connections and charge their solar lanterns with the solar panels that they just assembled during the workshop.

Felix has been trained to assemble solar panels and simple solar lanterns (which are made from locally available materials such as wood and plastic sewerage pipe). Now, with access to imported components - such as 1.8 watt solar panels, LEDs, diodes and resistors - Felix and his colleagues are eager to expand their business into microsolar, producing solar panels and solar lanterns for the rural market which is currently dependent on candles and kerosene for lighting. Felix is optimistic about market potential for microsolar:

"Many people like the wooden lamp that we made because it's strong and hard, and it has bright light".