A Clean Solar Alternative to Kerosene Lamps, 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.