Ghana: Visit and Evaluation of OCOS project
Franz Kies, Solux Member, sends this report from Ghana
In 2008 Solux e.V., the German non-profit organization participated in a competition of the World Bank to provide alternative lighting to Africa: “Lighting Africa”. Solux e.V. won the award and a budget with it to start and run a project “One Child One Solar Light” in Ghana. Now, after one year the World Bank was asking for a report to evaluate the project.
Working with Solux for some time but so far being an outsider to the Ghana project, I was asked to fly to Ghana to evaluate what had been achieved so far.
One of my major tasks was to visit schools in the countryside, specifically in off-grid areas, i.e. areas without access to the electricity grid, where SOLUX solar lights were introduced under the One Child One Solarlight project. Among many others I visited two schools sponsored by the “Gymnasium Neutraubling”, a secondary school in southern Germany. Their sponsorship enabled Solux and our Ghanaian subsidiary Solar4Ghana S4G to subsidise the costs of solar lamps at some selected schools. So e.g. in Katapar 46 pupils/parents were able to purchase SOLUX solar lights at the reduced cost of € 10.00 instead of the usual € 30.00.
And at an Islamic school I was invited as a special guest to personally hand out each solar lantern to each individual child. At first being rather timid and extremely disciplined, the children started to almost overwhelm me with joy and fun when they experienced me as an accessible person.
And again and again I met extremely motivated young teachers deep in the countryside in areas without any power supply. At night they are using the same sources of light for reading or preparation of lectures as their students, i.e. kerosene lanterns or candles. The pictures show some of these likeable, enthusiastic teachers at Jansu primary school.
I was able to do some good evaluations and statistics to determine the use and value of the SOLUX solar lights in Ghana. A detailed report will be delivered to the World Bank.
To sum it up in a few words:
The objectives set at the beginning of this project were met, the money and the efforts have been well spent. Solux has brought a tremendous improvement to the quality of life for a lot of people in Ghana. So far about 25.000 people, to a great part children, profit from Solux Solar Lights in Ghana. Let’s keep going!!! Find more pictures here
