Educate Thousands of Girls with Year-Round Water

Community Building Group  (CBG-WA) team in West Africa, particularly in Burkina Faso, is working tirelessly to support girls education toward solar energy lighting system. CBG has introduced the communities shared solar energy system which has two main components: Power school classrooms with solar energy LED light, and create study shelter areas with solar power light which allow students to study at night time at home after school. The project is a great success and has received a positive echo in the region. CBG -WA has installed solar energy LED light in the villages of Kamsi and Djomga.

Djomga is currently in the emergency zone declared by the government of Burkina Faso due to terrorist threats. The terrorist threats are real, and the village of Djomga and surrounding area are at high risk. Even that, CBG-WA team continue to support the local communities. The team traveled to the villages of Djomga and Kamsi.  In both areas, the school attendance rate is now 99%. Almost, most students attend school. Djomga primary school is the only surrounding school with solar power LED. According to the local communities, most people stop by to see the solar system.

For Noraogo, the Director of the primary school in Kamsi said: "With the solar power LED, every night, the students come out and stay here to study, and we too as teachers enjoy the light. Honestly, it has been a tremendous help for the students of both sexes, mostly the girls have good school performance, knowing that they can read and do their homework after school. That's the big change in their life. Before, we don’t even bother them with taking home their homework. Because they won’t be able to do more with a petrol lamp".

For Samba, a student of Djomga primary school said: "I am happy that our classroom has light and after school, I can study more every day. The teacher gives us homework and I can read too my textbook."

Solar electrification project for school has significantly increased students academic success. In both schools (Kamsi and Djomga), thanks to the solar electrification project installed by CBG-WA, the success rate has significantly improved as compared to previous past years before the solar power. As early stated, girls mostly can do homework, reading, and writing.

Aissata, a student, tells us about her experience before and after the electrification of her school: She said: "before it was difficult for me to have good grades, because it's at night that I have the time to study, but we have only one petrol lamp for the whole family, I can’t even use the lamp, because everyone in my family use the same lamp their need, so it disrupts me, I need to wait every time someone takes the lamp. Now, it is over, the school has light, I go every night to study, my grade before was 4 or 5 out of 10, but now scored 8 out of 10 average. The light makes me work hard."

Community Building Group is ready to support local communities in remote areas for better education of the children who are our future. Thanks for your donation and contribution. 

For the school year 2018-2019 that has just started, the CBG-WA team has visited the project areas and met with students and school teachers of the villages of Kamsi and Djomga. The solar electrification project of the primary school has benefited more than 1200 students in both villages. Students and parents’ thanks donors for bringing them solar lighting power system. Six (6) classrooms in Kamsi have solar systems installed, while in Djomga three (3) classrooms have been electrified.

The benefits of the solar electrification system in these two villages are obvious. According to the teachers, the overall returning students have successfully satisfied the credit score requirement last year. They are promoted, as they met the expectation from last school year.

Kadiatou who is a student parent said that: “having the solar energy lighting system in the primary school has been a game change for our kids. They are really motivated to study day and night time, it seems like they even enjoyed the light. So, the solar light is giving them knowledge. At night time, my kids like to study, which wasn’t the case before." 

Students and teachers reported to our team that, now everything works well. The leaders of both schools have once again welcomed the initiative and thank CBG-WA, and they have also reiterated the funding to continues with other solar based projects.

They also said that students and teachers need school supplies.  Your individual and collective contribution have made a difference in these two villages, we are now moving to expand these experiences in other remote area with no electricity grid connection.

With your donation, more villages yet come!