A Clean Solar Alternative to Kerosene Lamps, Nepal

Chepangs are one of the most underprivileged indigenous groups of Nepal. Their settlement areas lie far from development and people are compelled to lead hard lives.  Lothar VDC is one of those remote areas of Chitwan which acts as a home to over 5027 Nepalese people of whom 4000 are highly marginalized Chepang  people (Census 2011). The struggle has the civilization pushed back under margin of underdevelopment.

Lack of electricity is one of the major concerns in Lothar. It has affected series of socio-economic factors including education. To enhance child education by introducing Lothar community to efficient solar  technology, ECCA provided Solar Tuki sets, mass charging sets as well as maintenance training to 4 villages of Lothar namely Lo-ling, Gundi, Cheuding and Kalitar. Students, teachers and parents of 4 schools gathered on June 6, 2016. Each household received 2 solar tuki lamps benefitting 292 households in total, whereas mass charging stations (to charge the solar lamp) are kept at schools as an motivating agenda for school attendance. Thereby, students must come to school to charge their solar lamp.

Students and their parents were invited to receive Solar Tuki lamps

ECCA staff provides basic handling techniques of Solar Tuki

ECCA also provided 3 days long Solar tuki repair and maintenance training to 8 participants; 2 from each village. This will help them repair the lamps by themselves without having to travel far for its maintenance. These trained solar lamp repairing technicians will also be benefitting from the income received by repairing the solar lamps.

“Although people enroll their children at schools, only an average of 50% attend school regularly. Drop out rate is high and we believe that solar tuki can be a milestone to change this."

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While the loadshedding hours (for the electricity supplied from the government utility company) continue to increase in Nepal, alternative energy usage is amplifying in the lives of Nepalese people. Currently, Nepal faces 10-11 hours of loadshedding in a daily basis. The consequential effects brought by this situation in national economy is often highlighted; however its effect on education of children is hardly addressed.

The earthquake had made it worse. Loss of electrical infrastructures, weakened financial state and lack of immediate accessibility to alternative energy sources in rural areas started bringing people back to using harmful kerosene lamps.

To help young children in their education, and to help women in their household chores, ECCA provided over 1500 solar tuki lamps (along with solar panels) in schools of different earthquake affected villages.

“It has been around 9 months since my children received this tuki in their school. Seeing my children study during night with this tuki makes me happy too”, said one of the parents last week. 

Rasila, a grade 10 student, studies for her School Level Examination in Malta, Lalitpur

Rasila's mother gives fodder to animals with the help of tuki

We thank GlobalGiving and all our supporters / donors. Your continuous contribution has helped us improve hundreds of students' lives.

Next, we plan to provide solar tuki lamps to earthquake affected refugees' camp and backward Chepang community in Chitwan.

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