A Clean Solar Alternative to Kerosene Lamps, Nepal

Solar tuki lamp provided by ECCA is contributing positively in 4 Chepang villages of Chitwan.   

Monitoring visit conducted recently by ECCA revealed that the solar tuki lamps are helping Chepang children in their education and also in family's daily household activities. According to residents of Glauthok village, the tuki lamp has been one of the vital items in their household.

Sharmila, a fifth grader at Shree Rastriya Primary School says the tuki lamp has been a night-friend for her. "I need to do household chores at morning and evening. It is at night that I mostly need solar tuki for studying." They charge the tuki at school during day time and use it in the evening. That way, they also get to attend the school regularly.

However, one major challenge has been protecting the solar tuki lamp during rainy season. "It's portable so I took it to the fields during rainy season and, unfortunately, it got rusted. We were not able to light it for a month...  we got it repaired later. Since then, we have been cautious on the use of tuki during rainy season."

Repair and maintenance training was, in fact, provided by ECCA to selective local people of each village for the sustainability of the tuki lamps. The villagers pay reasonable amount of money to the person for the repair service.

While talking about environmental and economic benefits, the villagers state that the solar technology has replaced kerosene lamps in all the households of the village. "Till date, we have been able to save a lot of money, which would otherwise be used to buy kerosene", one villager shared.                                                                                        

The villagers have requested for new set of lamps, since some lamps they have are not functioning. So, ECCA plans to provide and replace the lamps soon.

We are really thankful for your support. Your support will help us support more people and villages devoid of electricity.

Solar tuki lamp distributed in Morang back in June is helping the students in their education. 

Prerana, a grade 10 student, reveals how the solar tuki lamp is affecting her education. "The solar tuki lamp has been a great help at night. In the day time, we charge them at school and at night, we can study after the household chores are over."

"Solar tuki lamp has definitely been a boost for our education", says the Principal of Shree Sagma Secondary School.

This solar PV based technology is simple to handle, is portable and gives enough light for several purposes. With over 110 solar tukis distributed to 3 schools in the new academic year, the solar tukis have proven to be a huge support for the families of the students. Kerosene lamps are being used lesser now (in the village), with growing use of solar tukis and the villagers are now more aware about alternative sources of energy.

And they don't have to worry when the tukis need repairing. One teacher from each school has taken Solar Tuki Repairing Training. So far, solar tuki has been very effective to boost education and livelihood  in rural villages, such as Morang which is devoid of grid electricity.

We are really thankful for your support in helping us promote this technology in rural Nepal. Your continous support will enable us to help more needy areas of Nepal.

Despite increasing accessibility of electricity in many parts of Nepal, a number of remote places in Morang district (in east Nepal) are still devoid of electricity facility. This absence has affected the education of children causing dfficulty during night study as they are compelled to use kerosene lamps.

Therefore, to help students study at night, ECCA has been providing solar tuki lamps to students of various schools of Letang and Warangi villages of Morang district. Also, as an attempt to encourage parents to send their children to school regularly, multiple charging unit (for the solar lamps) is kept in the schools.

With new students enrolled in the new academic year, ECCA distributed 110 additional solar tukis in 3 schools on June 12, 2017. Shree Sagma Secondary School and Shree Bhogteni Secondary School each received 30 solar tuki lamps whereas Shree Laxmi Secondary School received 50 lamps.

"We have been using kerosene lamps at our home since decades", said Rita, one of the students. She added happily, "we had never actually thought about using other forms of energy. But now, after seeing the advantages of solar tuki lamp, I think we can easily afford to use this portable, cost-effective and pollution free device."

Additionally, solar tuki maintenance training was provided to one teacher from each school during the time of distribution. This will enable long term use of the distributed lamps, since they won't have to travel far to repair broken ones.

“There were many things I had forgotten since last time“, said Milan, teacher of Shree Sagma Secondary School and trainee of the maintenance program. He was one of the attendees of maintenance training program ECCA had provided 4 years ago. "I feel more confident now."

Teachers and students of all the schools were thankful for the solar tuki lamps and maintenance training. We are also very thankful to you for helping us make this possible. 

Bhogateni and Sagma are two remote places of Morang district lying in south-eastern Nepal. Letang bazzar is the only market for the people residing there, which takes around 6 to 7 hours walk for the villagers.

After the promulgation of new constitution, both areas lie under Letang Bhogateni Municipality. However, the declaration has changed little for villages, which still lack basic infrastructures like health, road, market, electricity, water etc. In these villages, people are still compelled to use kerosene lamp or solar lamp due to absence of electricity and lack of access to alternative energy sources.

Schools also are in a miserable condition. They do not have sufficient academic teaching and learning materials. Having few schools is also a problem for students. For some, it takes 2 to 3 hours to reach their school and night time is very dangerous for them to go home because of dense jungle. So far, schools have managed a hostel for those students. It did provide some solace to safety of students but learning at evening is troublesome due to lack of electricity.

Realizing the need, ECCA distributed 18 pieces of Solar Tuki lamps to Shree Sagma Secondary School and 20 pieces to Shree Bhogteni Secondary School. These tukis will be used in the hostel by the students (for their evening studies).

“Before, our students used kerosene lamp to study in night time and I was always afraid of fire hazards and their health. But, from now, my worry has gone with these solar tukis.”, said Mr. Jaya - Principal; Shree Sagma Secondary School Sagma.

“We are really happy”, said one the students. “The lamp is portable, really easy to use and has no effects on health and environment.”

In near future, ECCA is planning to distribute solar tuki lamp to other needy households of the area and conduct repair maintenance training for the local people.

Globalgiving has initiated "Renewable Energy Match" (April 20 - May 25), in which Globalgiving will be providing additional matching fund and bonus fund to the donations provided. Our project is also taking part in this "Renewable Energy Match"

https://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/renewable-energy-match-2017/

We are very thankful to you for your continuous support and request you for support during the "Renewable Energy Match" period.

Studying, especially for girls, has never been easy in rural areas. Such is the case of Asmita, a resident of Loling VDC, Chitwan.

“I cannot study whenever I want to”, shares Asmita shyly. “There are house chores to do and younger sisters and brothers to look after.”

Asmita is one of the outstanding students of her class but her excellence in studies do not come easily. Like most of her classmates, she has list of chores to complete everyday before finally sitting to study at night.

“Before, I used to study without my parents knowing… only because we used kerosene lamps at night. And me using more kerosene meant more scolding!” Asmita reveals. But she doesn’t have to do it that way nowadays. The reason is solar tuki provided to her by ECCA, which uses zero kerosene and is designed for easy handling and maintanance.

“Two solar tuki lamps that I got in school, we use one for studying and my mother uses the other in the kitchen”,  she says.

For charging, she has to take the lamps to the school, where multiple charger has been kept. It has been a very good excuse to send her to school almost everyday.

Asmita’s story resonates with over 200 households, in her village and neighbouring villages, where solar tuki lamps and multiple chargers (in schools) were provided .  According to the respondents, this has minimized the use of kerosene to a huge extent and attendance number of students in schools is amplifying.

Thank you for your continued support.