The Solar Project
Solar lighting in areas off the electricity grid, including refugee camps, has been a continuous request. Solar lighting panels enable adult education classes to meet after dark, school children to revise their class work and health activities to function.
Among our earliest initiatives, the placement of solar panels is an educational support project. This project has expanded gradually due to the expense of the panels and the instability of many areas in which panels are most needed to provide lighting to schools, clinics and community centres.
Since its beginning in 1997, the Solar Project has benefited at least 44,000 people at nearly 30 sites. A number of panels have had to be removed or relocated due both to misuse and the bulldozing of settlements in the Khartoum area. At present we have twelve active panels in the Khartoum area, thirteen in the Nuba Mountains and one each in New Halfa and Kenana. Most of these are being maintained by people we have trained.
The Canada Fund and CARE International have been this project’s main
supporters.
