Solar Power for Kawila

The main purpose of this visit to Zambia was to install solar power via solar panels at Kawila Primary School, giving them power for the first time. This is a remote school which serves 15 surrounding villages.

We were greeted by staff, pupils and members from the local villages. Philemon also came over from Dambilo School to help.

Everyone lent a hand right from the start. They soon understood what was needed to check out and connect the panels, then sort out the battery.

We even mounted the panels on the roof thanks to a couple of intrepid village lads.

The solar panels and batteries provide a robust sustainable solution for schools such as Kawila. We have previously installed solar power at two other schools in the area (Dambilo and Sianyoolo) and hope they will be able to support each other.

Next we shared a drink made from maize and sugar followed by a delicious lunch of nshima, rape leaves and chicken.

Adele and Sian spent some time with the pupils while Malcolm interviewed and filmed staff, helpers and PTA members.

When we left, the solar panels were powering LED lights, a router, a projector and a Raspberry Pi3 with RACHEL offline learning resource. We also gave the school three laptops.

After a successful day, all that remained was to get some thick cloth from the local market to block out the sunlight.

We were able to complete this part of our project thanks to a grant from The Waterloo Foundation. Muhunya Solar of Lusaka helped with advice on the solar power set up, also donating some of the cables.

Preparations for September trip

Progress

I’ve finally booked the flights today so that’s good progress with preparations for our September trip to Siavonga, Zambia! It’s exciting to have Sian, Luke and Malcolm coming along with us to share their skills and expertise. We’re very grateful to them for volunteering their time and funding their own travel as we do.

Schedule

We’ve set ourselves a challenging schedule with five teacher training days, two solar panel installations, and three installations of RACHEL elearning resource on Synology Diskstation.
So, at the end of our visit we hope to have achieved the following if funds allow:
1) One additional rural Primary School will have solar power for LED lights, a Raspberry Pi distributing RACHEL wirelessly and four laptops for teachers to access the resource. Read more about RACHEL here.
2) Siavonga Nutrition Group (SNG) will have solar power for women’s groups to use their sewing machines.
3) Three big secondary schools with power, will be able to access RACHEL from  Synology Diskstations.
4) SNG will have a Raspberry Pi allowing their office to be a hotspot for local children to access learning resources.
5) A large primary school will have wireless access over its whole site via additional access points.
6) A local Resource centre will have the resources of RACHEL via Raspberry Pi to make it a learning hub for the local community.
7) We will  train teachers in hardware maintenance, network security, programming with Raspberry Pi, using the RACHEL resources and Maths and English topics for primary children.
8) Finally, if possible, we hope to supply Raspberry Pi servers to four other primary schools.

Sample Costs

So, if you would like to contribute to any of our expenses, this is an approximate idea of costs, although any donation is welcome.
Raspberry Pi £36
Raspberry Pi server £80
Hard drive for Synology Diskstation £60
Ex demo Synology Diskstation from £200

We always welcome donations of routers, access points and working laptops/ tablets.

Many Hands Make “Light” Work

When Giakonda Solar Schools made a recent visit to Zambia, it was really a case of many hands making light work as teachers, pupils and community members joined in to install solar panels in four rural schools.

We have been working in Siavonga, Southern Zambia for the last three years. Together with the local District Education Board Secretary we have identified twenty six schools in the district which have no mains power.

In February this year, thanks to a grant from Hub Cymru Africa and the donation of eight solar panels from SolarPlants, we spent a busy three weeks providing power, lighting and world class educational resources to four primary schools. Howard also delivered computer and technical training to teachers and the community. We worked with three British Council hub schools to improve their network infrastructure.
After giving them half a day’s training, Howard was able to supervise staff and “helpers” to connect up the solar panels in a matter of a few hours. Two 235W panels and a 200Ah battery provide enough power to run LED lights, a router and a Raspberry Pi server which together provided a huge educational resource.

The Raspberry Pi is a small computer designed in Cambridge, made in Bridgend which needs only as much power as a mobile phone. It delivers an offline learning resource called RACHEL (Rural Area Community Hotspot for Education and Learning). It is a vast library of articles and videos on everything from literature to agriculture, history to health technology and science. This can be accessed from a laptop and any other wireless enabled device in the locality.
For a remote rural school, this solar set-up represents a big step forward by offering site security, lengthening the working day and providing world class learning materials.
The head teacher of Sianyoolo School commented, “With lights and educational materials like this we feel like a proper school!”