Solar Lanterns for Tana Students

The Tana River Life Foundation thanks all donors for fundingthe purchase of solar lanterns. We have been able to covered a wide area of Tana Delta to date.

During the month of July we carried out field visits to the some of the schools where we donated the solar lanterns to get a report on how the lanterns have been of help. The Headteacher at Assa Primary, Mr. Nyaga was quoted, “The Lanterns have been really helpful to my students whose parents are nomadic pastoralists, for example at the moment we are on school holiday and most of the students are not in the village as they are in different areas looking for water for their livestock. Since the lanterns are portable, I can say at least my students can be able to conduct night studies wherever they go.” In the Assa area, the nearest village is nearly 100km from the main road while the next school withcandidates that can benefitis Kone which is approximately 68Km from Assa.

We also surveyed Ndera Location, which has more than 6 schools without source of power. The National Government has installed solar systems in the schools but most of them need maintenance and repairs. In some areas, the schools are a few kilometers from the village and it becomes a challenge for the candidates to go to the schools to study at night. It is because of this that the Tana River Life Foundation has decided to continue collecting funds and buy lanterns to donate to those schools.

Once again we will be grateful for morecontributions and support from partnersto lighting up the future of Tana Delta students. We also invite you to the Little by Little Campaign organized by GlobalGiving starting from 12^th August 2019 to 16^th August 2019 which is a week long campaign designed to help celebrate the power of our crowd by matching donations up to $50 at 50% with $60,000 in matching funds depending on how much we can raise.

Greetings,

Thanks you for your continuous support. It is the second term in Kenya and students just began the second term. This period instead of just giving the solar lanterns to the students, a small team of youth volunteering at Tana River Life Foundation was selected to give an encouragement talk to the students. By doing this, the youth could also get a better insight of what the Foundation does as well as give a chance for them to share their experiences to the students. We were at Onwardei Primary School and donated 24 solar lanterns to the class 7 students.

Although we will continue giving out solar lanterns to the students, in the next month we will be revisiting the schools where we donated and check whether the lanterns are still functional as well as monitor the impact it has on the students performances as well as their families.

The foundation is very grateful to your contributions and we do hope you can continue sharing about the project so that we can be able to reach the goal of lightening the lives of many students and families in the county.

Regards,

Happy 2019 to our donors over the world and Gong Xi Fa Cai to our donors in Asia as you usher in the year of the pig. Your donations on this project is making a huge impact to many students in our community as so far over 200 households in Tana Delta Sub County have benefited since 2017. This year we were at Ozi Primary which is one of the most rural parts of the county as the nearby village is only accessible by boat and by motorbike during the dry seasons. Ozi village is situated at the mouth of the Tana River where it flows into the Indian Ocean. The school has a population of 461, with the highest enrolment being from the lower primary level.

The Government has installed solar in one of the classrooms to support its Digital Learning Programme to the lower grades during the day but parents are not willing to send their students to school during the night due to security concerns as well as worries about safety of the female students. It’s for this reason that the Foundation has donated 52 solar lanterns to the students of class 7 and 8 to ensure that they can conduct their night preps. This particular type of Solar Lanterns have a component that enables parents to charge  phones during the day hence serve as an income generating resource to cover some basic necessities.

This year’s class 8 comprises 17 students, with 15 of them being girls and boys being only 2. It is a unique scenario in the area as mostly the number of boys in classes is usually higher than that of girls. This had a negative impact towards studying at the school at night as their class teacher Mr. Ngoka was quoted, “The community don’t want to bring students to school especially the female pupils. I have a hard task of convincing the parents on the benefits of letting their students do night preps. It wasn’t making sense to give students homework over the week as I was sure they can’t do it at home. Now I can give them assignments that I am confident they can do.”

After donating the solar lanterns, Bakari a class 7 student had this to say, “Although I scored 200 /500 for the last exams, I am very confident that I can improve my performance to at least 300. This is mainly because at home usually I don’t study at night but now I have the resources to. I have a sister also in this primary school and we will help each other study.” While Aisha a class 8 student said “I am grateful to all donors who had a hand in this project, as my results are somehow poor and I do hope that this year I can do a lot of personal studies at home to ensure that I improve significantly come the end of the year.

The months of September and October were busy months for TRLF staff who were criss crossing the Tana Delta, distributing solar lanterns to the most far flung and remote villages. First we did raise over US $ 2,000 during the month for the GlobalGiving Matching Campaign in 12th September. Thank you to all this who participated and the rest who are always supporting our projects. A total of 135 students from 8 different schools and villages have since benefited from this assistance during this period, the majority of them in Grade 7, and who will be sitting for their primary school leaving examinations in Nov 2019. See the table below for the breakdown of the solar lanterns distributed during the months of October and November this year.

• Chamwanamuma Primary - 35 
• Serah Primary - 14
• Odole Primary - 15
• Shirikisho Primary - 25
• Miticharaka Primary - 19
• Assa Primary - 20
• Kibokoni Primary - 7

All the schools are located in villages not connected to the National Power Grid, and unlikely to be connected in the forseeable future.

Some of the schools have arranged for these students to board at school from Mondays to Fridays to minimize the time students spend travelling from home to school daily. This allows them more time for participation in games, as well as night studies under the guidance of their teachers. This arrangement has been possible because of the solar lanterns. With their classrooms being lit up by the solar lanterns, students from these schools can now do night studies easily.

During the weekends when the students return to their homes, they carry their lanterns with them benefiting their entire families.

Assa Primary School is located 90 kms from our centre. The headteacher there, Mr. Anthony Nyagah , was very grateful and sent feedback that “students in Grade 7 are benefiting so much from the donation of the lanterns, and have started showing good improvement in their rate of learning”. Another primary school which benefited from this assistance, Miticharaka Prmary School, is located in a very remote part of the Tana Delta, with the only access being dirt roads across the many islets leading to the school. These islets are connected by hand constructed wooden bridges. 

The Kenya primary schools academic year ended on 26th Oct 2018 and will restart in January 2019. TRLF will then continue distributing solar lanterns to students studying in schools in Ndera and Salama location by mid January.

Thank you to all that gave generously on the Rewards Bonus Day that was on 18^th July. We managed to raise $1,073.

Implementation of several projects including the distribution of solar lanterns to the most rural schools as many roads to the interior villages were completely cut off for over two months due to floods. In July 2018, we managed to visit Sera Primary School (latitude -2.124403, 40.123895) to meet and advise the Standard 7 pupils. In Kenya, the primary school education runs for eight years, from Standard One to Eight. The class has 17 children, who come from the various surrounding villages of Sera, Feji, Abaganda and Galima. Each child received a solar lantern to help them learn at their homesteads at night. 

Here are testimonials from two of the students, Omar and Habuko.

 “My name is Omar from Feji village. I am 13 years old and a class seven student in Sera Primary School. Today I received a solar Lamp from Tana River Life Foundation and I would like to thank all of you for assisting me with the solar lamp.

Without the lamp it was difficult for me to do night studies and complete my home work because at home were using the local traditional kerosene lamps. This made me to go a neighbour’s house where they have a solar to do my night studies. As I have got this this solar lamp I will do night studies comfortably at night in our own home.”

“My name is Habuko from Sera village. I am 14 years old and am in Standard Seven in Sera Primary School. My mother is a famer and my dad passed away two years ago.

After the death of my father, life in our family became more difficult because my mother had to act as a father also. We live in a small mud house and lack many basic needs at home. After school, I had to help my mother to look for firewood and also fetch water which made me have little time for my studies when there was still light. Now I will be able to help my mum and still do my studies at night using the solar lamp.”

The Headteacher of Sera Primary School, Mr. Emmanuel explained that his students have been facing the problem of not being able to study at night as most have no source of affordable and safe lighting like a solar lamp or electricity in their homes. This made him to start a boarding section of the Standard Seven and Eight from Mondays to Fridays. With these solar lamps, it will be easy for them to do night preps at their own homes during the weekends and the long school holidays as well. It also has a positive impact on their eyesight and safety in the homes.”

Thanks all for the continuous support as we target to reach more schools in the last term of the year.