Bring Smile and Light to Our Little Ones by Your Generous Contribution

St. Theresa Tribal Girls Hostel, Shagarh is a hostel for tribal children who are socially and economically weaker in the society. The vision of the hostel is to establish a self-conscious, eco-friendly, rural based, well educated, healthy, value oriented and rich self-help rural society, where socio-economic developmental process helps to cater to the need of poorest of the poor.

The hostel is situated in Shagarh, a remote village situated 78 Kilometers away from the district headquarters of Sagar in the State of Madhya Pradesh in India.

The Probelm

Over the last two decades, the rural areas of India have witnessed many changes. There are better road connections, there is a significant improvement in health care, literacy levels have gone up and mobile phones have become ubiquitous. But one thing that hasn’t changed much is the sorry state of electricity supply. 12-14 hours load shedding is a common phenomenon across most states of the country. When there is no electricity for such a long time span, one of the most affected lot are the school going children.

In absence of electricity, students either do not study at all or they study under kerosene lamp. Either situation is not good. In India over 120 million children depend upon crude kerosene lamp for studying due to lack of grid electricity supply. Kerosene lamps do not emit sufficient light to enable children to read in comfort. They also emit carbon monoxide, which is harmful to the health of a child. There is also a chance of kerosene spilling resulting in a fire hazard. The end result -students fail to keep pace with school teaching and when they pass, they are less confident and less skillful to find employment opportunities.

The Solution

Among all possible solutions, solar energy based solar lanterns appear to provide the cheapest and quickest solution.

Emerging LED lighting technology which is semiconductor based presents a wonderful solution to this simple lighting issue. With the white LED revolution it is now possible to provide a simple light suitable for reading purpose that consumes less than a quarter watt but provides 10 to 50 times more useable light than a wick lamp.

Project involves setting up solar modules on hostel roof top and distribution of 60 solar lanterns to these children.

The solar modules installed on the hostel roofs would generate the required electricity to charge these lanterns.

Objectives

1. To promote healthy living through use of environmental friendly solar energy,
2. Avoid use of kerosene or other source of lights which are not healthy and causes damage to the environment through carbon emissions,
3. To motivate children to regularly do their study and attend the school,
4. Create a social and technical impact on the school children to understand the science of solar energy and also to promote solar energy.

Appeal

The Tribal Hostel Children, who are hailing from economically poor family backgrounds need your care and support to educate themselves. This will help them to empower themselves and come forward to the mainstream of the society while keeping their cultural and tribal identity.

Source: ICNW