Solar for Breakfast

In January, my principal and I came together to tackle some of the issues that plagued our high school. The following are what we came to agree were the most devastating yet solvable issues:

Our school office

1. Hunger. Our double orphans come to school hungry. Because they are in school, they neither have the time nor resources to grow their own food. They also don’t have any income in order to purchase food. Therefore, when they do attend school (tuition provided by the government), they are sluggish, inattentive, and unable to perform to dig themselves out of poverty. It is impossible for these students to learn effectively when malnourished.

2. Electricity. Our school is spending excessive amounts of money on petrol for our generator to provide students with scholarly material, quizzes, and exams. The generator provides unregulated current that damages our computer and printers at least once a semester resulting in costly repairs and maintenance. We use the generator to run our school television during fundraisers, but unfortunately with the rising cost of petrol, our profits have been plummeting leading to a continued cancelling of our HIV/AIDS related secondary activities.

   
   
   

3. HIV/AIDS. Fobane High School does not have Life Skills education, which leaves our children more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and an unprepared adulthood. Our English Club wants to desperately create a Life Skills/English Magazine in order to provide some education on this front. Previous magazines incorporated several important life lessons through grabbing images, and stories, however it had to be sold at such a high cost to the students that only ten were able to afford it. The inability to distribute the information leaves us just as precariously threatened to HIV/AIDS as before.

   
   A free condom distributor now in every shop!

To address the issues we cleverly evoked one material solution that would perpetuate the solving of the others. The idea was to create a sustainable solar panel system that would save money on petrol. Half of the expected savings would then create a breakfast fund to provide nutrition to at least half of the double orphan population. The other half of the savings would be used as emergency maintenance and repairs in the event that the green energy system would falter. Without the need to purchase petrol, the Life Skills Magazine would then be affordable for individual purchase and HIV/AIDS education can be distributed among the masses for invaluable CAPACITOR building.

Me caring for my own solar

We applied for a grant through the Peace Corps to generate the funds and purchase a large solar panel system. The project cost roughly $3000 USD and the grant covered about 75%. The system consists of 6 85W panels resulting in 510W of clean electricity stored in 6 105Ah Solar Batteries.

Construction

Some RESISTANCE:

As with any project, we have run into a few snags. Right after we bought the system, our printer broke from the unregulated current of our generator (see, major problem). We then purchased a new laser printer/copier, which now consumes power at a higher rating. Our system can still supply enough power, but our inverter is not able to cope with regulating the current need. However, we are underway with getting the new more capable inverter to handle our needs more appropriately. The electricity is CURRENTly (get it?) amazing, quiet, and convenient.

Installing

We also did not expect an issue of jealousy to arise. The solar panels are primarily for the office and printing needs, however the teaching staff is requesting additional paneling to provide for cell phones and laptops. The grant money does not, and will not cater to this need, but we are looking for alternatives to alleviate these unwavering pressures to accommodate.

Unexpected Benefits:

While teaching, we all noticed that we didn’t need to yell to teach (as much, I still yell at my students quite a lot). We didn’t realize, but that generator was obnoxiously loud, and at times it did make teaching quite frustrating. The silence has made it much easier to hear the unwarranted screaming of tiny children.

The community has been asking if they can charge there cell phones, to which our administration is considering using this solar system as additional fundraising potential as long as the printer is not being used. At the moment we are unsure whether this money will go to our breakfast fund, but that is what it seems we may be leaning towards.

Finished

Future

The project is not completed, but we may be close. We have the major construction portion and budgetary issues finalized, and are tinkering with how we plan on using our savings on petrol to provide our most needy students with regular sustenance. We expect that we can offer breakfast to 20 double orphans starting in two weeks. The literary magazine has its first drafts, and is being edited. In the following weeks I will repost on how we attempt, and hopefully solve our breakfast issues. Just recently I was able to speak to our several shopkeepers (all in Sesotho!) and struck a deal that could make breakfast cheap, efficient, and sustainable for each school week. Wish us luck!

Although we still have our library to finish, this has been the final, biggest project I have had the honor of working with my community on, and it has been difficult, tiring, worthwhile, and enjoyable.

Kids

PS. This project was a selfish one. My cousin is visiting, and wants to straighten her hair. How American of her...WATT??? 

Tuition Assistance Program

Last year I became a co-chair of the Tuition Assistance Program. This committee, under Peace Corps Lesotho, works with the home based organization of Friends of Lesotho. Friends of Lesotho is comprised of several people stateside, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers or those who have worked in Lesotho in the past, who still remain vital, active members in the development of Lesotho. This post is to explain TAP and FOL’s purpose in aiding to the education sector of development in Lesotho.

Our senior team

Education in Lesotho has been one of the major fronts of development that the Peace Corps community has been addressing. Unlike the states, the government of Lesotho provides only some of the schooling for students. Children get no monetary support from the government for pre-school or kindergarten (actually I believe in the states, pre-school is also not provided for). The government does start funding children at Standard 1, or 1st Grade. They are paid for in full (with food for lunch) from Standard 1 until Standard 7. However funding for students cease upon graduation of Standard 7.

Although most schools have no electricity, no running water, little to no visual aids, and are essentially concrete cubes, the students perform vibrantly. They are taught English starting in Standard 5 and gain some form of fluency by the time they enter High School. The government unfortunately does not pay for students starting at Form A (8th Grade). This means that parents or guardians must save money for their students if they want them to enter high school. At my school the high school fees are R 1350 or approximately $130 USD for the entire year. This however does not include book fees or exam fees, which are similarly comparable.

Working hard

This may not sound like much for parents or guardians to handle, but in a country where 75% of the population is unemployed and most rural villagers get food from subsistence farming rather than through economic means, mustering the R 1350 to send just one of their many children into “higher” education can take its toll on the family. For those students who are double orphans (both parents deceased) the government does pay for the students in full as long as birth and death certificates can be materialized. Therefore the most at risk students who have the most difficulty paying are those who are single orphans, and whose living guardian isn’t working.

That is where TAP, or the Tuition Assistance Program, comes in with its support from Friends of Lesotho. The main premise as to further the education of the citizens in developing countries is that those who become educated will then in turn bring about further development in their own country. Education is the tool that trains a system to be self-serving. The true purpose to volunteering and development is to have that country become self-reliant. TAP and FOL hope to achieve that by funding the brightest, yet neediest of the students in the many schools in Lesotho.

Our most important meeting

The Peace Corps Volunteers in Lesotho work directly in the schools and gain insight and develop personal relationships within the school. We learn to see which students try the hardest, which ones are excelling with little to no parental support, which ones just need a little more help to become the tools for the future. Each volunteer who wishes to have their school participate in TAP scholarships submits up to 5 students chosen by the volunteer and the volunteer’s community. These students must not be a school member’s child (meaning a school member has a well paid job in order to pay for their child), must not have any other scholarship (for example: government double orphan scholarship known as manpower), and must be in the top third of the class (to statistically assess which student scholarships may allow more students to enter tertiary schooling).

These students then write compositions, which are used to judge their English skills and used to thank the sponsors that provide FOL with funding. The process is a simple one, with plenty of people benefiting.

Some students who applied 

Last year 30 schools participated with 290 students given half scholarship. Friends of Lesotho donated over $17,000 USD. This year 37 high schools in Lesotho applied. 71 students were awarded full scholarship while 46 students were awarded half. Approximately $10,600 USD was awarded and distributed giving the 117 students incentive to stay in school longer. The amount of funding is directly related to how much support is generated to FOL from America and other organizations. These students often receive food, life skills education (HIV/AIDS prevention), and invaluable mentorship. These students are encouraged to continue working hard to keep up their marks and we predict great things to amount from them.

Let's keep these kids in school

Without TAP and the support from FOL, these students may have been dismissed from their education. If you are interested in supporting FOL in its TAP endeavors next year please check out their website:

http://www.friendsoflesotho.org