Solar Electricity for an African School

We appreciate the support of our donors, and expect to have at least one school system installed by the end of 2011!  The teachers from our first school have begun coming to Musoma for training on the computer since we are working to provide internet access along with solar power at that school.  It is very exciting for them as it will be the first time that they will have electricity at the school, and also the first time they will have a way to connect to the internet in their rural village.

TanzSolar has developed proposals for partial funding of the solar-schools program from the Tanzanian Government through the Rural Energy Agency.  We are also writing grant proposals to assist in accelerating the implementation of this electrification project.

At TanzSolar we realize that these are difficult economic times for everyone, so we are especially appreciative of your donations to support education for some of the worlds most disadvantaged students.  It's hard to describe how excited these students and teachers are about the possibility of having electricity.  We all thank you.

During the first quarter of this project TanzSolar has met with the regional school commissioner to select the best schools for this project.  We are looking for schools with good management and an active local parent board.  Our staff has met with headmasters and many teachers from 4 of the targeted local Secondary Schools.  All of the rural Musoma schools are without electricity, and it is our goal to eventually provide power to all of them.  Indeed most of the schools even within the Musoma Urban district do not have electricity.

The headmasters, teachers and students are all very excited about the possibility of having lighting so that they can study at school in the evenings.  They are very interested in getting electricity in the on-campus teachers houses so that they will be able to attract and keep teachers at these rural schools.  And they are very excited about having power for a computer and internet connection so they can access the whole world of information available online, together with a printer so that these materials can be shared with their classes.

We hope to begin installing these systems in 2011, and are looking for funding in addition to the Global Giving funds to speed the project along.  All donations will be put to work as soon as possible.  Thank you for your support.