Starting the Pilot Solar Light Project at Kyaithani

Its September 29 2014 and the exciting start of the pilot solar light project for the cluster schools in the Ndandini and Kyaithani village area of Kenya.

At SunnyMoney Nairobi Office

We begin with an early morning visit to Sunny Money, the Nairobi distributor of several inexpensive but reliable solar lights.  Sunny Money has a goal of eliminating the use of kerosene in Africa for lighting by 2020.  They have already sold 1 million lights in east Africa and are making major headway in Kenya.

Their website is www.sunnymoney.org .

Loaded up with 148 solar lights and 6 water filters  

Soon we had the 148 solar lights loaded in our van and were off for the 4 hour drive to Ndandini village.

We had researched Sunny Money as our chosen distributor and various solar lights and decided for the pilot project to use the model s2 and s20 solar lights from d.light designs as well as some Sun King ECO solar lights.

Setting up the Solar Presentation at Kyaithani

 With the solar products set up on display and Cynaidah and Lameck from Sunny Money on hand to make a solar presentation in Swahili for the students and parents, we were ready.

Lameck captivates the crowd 

 From the first moment, the students and parents were spellbound.  The thought of having light in their homes at an affordable price was unbelievable for the parents.  For the students, being able to study at home had been unthinkable before today.

Lameck shows a multi-room solar light setup

In addition to talking about and demonstrating the solar lights chsen for our pilot project, Sunny Money also demonstrated some more expensive solar lights including ones that could charge cellphones and even this multi-room model.

At the end of the presentation we handed out the solar lights for our pilot project to the 138 students of Kyaithani Secondary School.

Kyaithani Secondary Students
 getting Solar lights

Kyaithani Secondary students
getting solar lights

Lights for Lower Yatta Secondary
Girls Boarding School

And we presented the solar lights to Ann, principal of the Lower Yatta Secondary Girls Boarding School, which would be used at this new school which has recently become the 7th school in our "cluster".

Everyone wanted to be in the photo and showing their new solar lights.

138 happy students with their solar lights

And the parents were so excited for their children as well.

Excited and happy parents

Then we were off to make the presentation at the new Lower Yatta Secondary Girls Boarding School. 

Solar presentation for Lower Yatta
Secondary Girls Boarding School

Jan presents solar lights for the girls

This trip we also brought Sawyer water filters for each school to use for filtering any non-potable water brought to the school and for a teaching aid to encourage parents to acquire a filter for home use.

New Sawyer water filters
Kimali and Ann
Principals at the 2 Secondary Schools

Students love drinking potable filtered water

First thing the next day the phone started ringing at Kyaithani Secondary School.  Parents were wanting to thank the donors for the solar lights that their children had brought home.  They were also asking about how these lights could be bought.

All the students had brought their lights back to school and it was great to see them all sitting outside in the sun in each student's special spot for charging.

Lights charging at school next day

 All too soon we had to leave Kyaithani to return home.  It was heartwarming to get a smiling send off by the students with their prized solar lights!

Bye for now.  Until next trip.

 We expect the solar light pilot to run until the end of January 2015.  We expect to collect usage data and information to help us determine the scope and direction for our next solar project which could see each of the 1200+ students in our cluster of 7 schools equipped with a solar light for their study use at home.

Keep watching our blog for progress reports.
Terry & Jan

Working Towards a Solar Lighting Project

Since learning of the failure to secure the CRCID grant, we have refocused our efforts towards providing solar lighting for all the 1200 students at the 6 schools in the Ndandini/Kyaithani area of Kenya.

Solar technology is changing rapidly and there are many new lights available at quite reasonable prices (although even a $10 light is beyond what most villagers in Ndandini can afford).

When we installed the first solar lights at the Kyaithani Secondary School in 2012, students began comning to school at 4am to study.  As we move towards providing lighting for primary school students, encouraging them to come to school at 4am is not ideal.

So we are looking to provide each of the 1200 students with their own individual solar light that they can use at home for reading and studying.

Before we launch this big project, we are going to undertake a smaller pilot project to determine the benefits of this approach.

Jan & Terry will be going to Kenya in late September and will introduce the solar lighting pilot project and provide some initial solar lights for the trial project.

Stay tuned for updates on this new project and direction. 

UPDATE re potential project

The project that we have been working towards since 2012 will not be proceeding.  It was predicated on receiving a significant grant from CRCID (Canadian Rotary Collaboration for International Development), who in turn has been obtaining their grant funding from the Canadian government through CIDA and more recently CIDA's successor DFATD (Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development).  CRCID has received notice from DFATD that they will be receiving some funding for the next 12 months, but the funds to be provided are only sufficient to support 2 of the 9 international projects that CRCID had approved for its potential funding.  The two projects to receive funding are projects that had previously received funding support from CIDA and CRCID in prior years.

We do still have good support from our Rotary Club partners and local Rotary District 5040 here in BC.  So we are now looking at a potential scaled back project that could still provide significant benefits to the 1200+ students at the 7 schools in the Ndandini/Kyaithani area.

Stay tuned in to this blogspot for upcoming news about this.

Because of the disappointing news of the lack of DFATD/CRCID grant support, it is even more important that we attract more Rotary partner clubs to our project efforts in the Ndandini and Kyaithani area of eastern Kenya.

If you are reading this post and are new to our work, I encourage you to read the additional older posts in this blog to see our history and the things that we have accomplished because of partner support.

If you have any questions, you are encouraged to contact me.

Terry

Potential New Project (that we have been working towards since 2012)

We have been working with some of our Rotary Club partners since 2012 to develop another project plan that would benefit the villagers in the Ndandini area, and to make grant applications to assist with its funding.

We have not yet completed this task, but we are still quite hopeful that it will happen soon.

Here is a 6 minute youtube that outlines the work that we have done in Ndandini since 2007 and introduces the potential new project.  Its actually an Invitation to Partner with Us.

Please think about how you can help and get involved with us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTcQAKmBlOU

Thanks.    Terry

Ndandini gets help from Denmark. A water pipeline is coming.

A self-help community-based organization (Inyamandu) in Kitui near Ndandini has been successful in securing some funding from the Kenyan government's CDTF (Community Development Trust Fund) which in turn gets funding from DANIDA (the Danish International Development Agency).

This funding is intended to build a water pipeline from the well site, that was provided by a Rotary project in 2010, to a new large 100,000 litre water tank in the village of Kyaithani - about 5km from the well.

This pipeline will make the well a major part of the future and ongoing water supply and distribution system for the whole area.  The report that Inyamandu submitted to CDTF indicates the potential to eventually make the water available to up to 9 area villages (subject to further funding).

Construction has already begun on the 1.7km portion from the well site to the one acre Community Garden (where our donors bought land and provided a large drip irrigation greenhouse in 2011).

It is wonderful to see donor support growing and extending beyond our own donor community!

It is wonderful to see our initial investment in the well site now becoming such a key part of the area's future!

Thanks again everyone for all your support since we started this humanitarian venture way back in September 2007.  Its great what we have accomplished, yet there is still so much more that we can do. 

Once you go there you know how little they have and how much we all take for granted every day. The villagers would love to have you come.  A small group from Canada just visited in September (their first visit to Africa) and already they are talking about going back.  Come along with us some time and see for yourself.

All the best to all of you over this Christmas season.  God Bless Us, Everyone!

Terry & Jan

Rotary Clubs provoide drinking water for students for a month. Please join us.

UPDATE:  Individual donors are continuing to donate $20 to help provide a load of drinking water to a school.  Every $20 helps us meet the requirement for 18 loads each month.

We now have two Rotary Clubs that have decided to support us by sponsoring a whole month of water deliveries.  Two Rotary Clubs on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia Canada have each donated $500!  Thank you RC Gibsons and RC Sunshine Coast-Sechelt.

If you or your Rotary Club would like to help us, click on the donate button on this website (or send an email to me at terryumbach@hotmail.com for an address where you can send your cheque.)

Thanks for all your interest and support as we endeavor to keep providing drinking water to these 1200+ students in the Ndandini, Kyaithani, Muusini, Ndunguni, and Nthilani area of eastern Kenya.

Terry

Rotarians choose to give water instead of eating!

We have had a good immediate response to our request to provide $20 donations with each donation delivering a 7,500 litre tanker load of potable water to schools in the Ndandini/Kyaithani area of Kenya. And we have already sent $720 to provide for water for the 6 schools for the months of May and June.

I suggested to our local Rotary Club that members might consider giving up their weekly meal at our Rotary Club meeting and donating that $20 for a load of water instead.  At that meeting our club members spontaneously donated over $250!  Several more also donated monthly amounts online on this site.  We now have several members who have agreed to donate the $20 each week instead of eating at our club meeting.

We welcome everyone who would like to help us.  Perhaps there are other Rotary clubs that might like to take this on as well?

The six schools each need 3 ($20) loads of water per month in order to provide the 1200 students with the minimum of 4 litres of potable water per day recommended by WHO.  There is also a great need to provide potable water to the rest of the 5000+ villagers in the area who are subsistence farmers with essentially no income.

Any help is appreciated.