Solar Power to Villages in Karen State, Myanmar

Continued rain falls in Myanmar caused floods in many districts of the country.  In the State of Karen(Kayin) where BHN has been actively working, the river Thalwin(or Salween) flooded in the middle of the city of Hpa An(state capital) and many other locations of the state.  The office of BHN scarcely escaped to get submerged under water but the activity had to be suspended for about 2 weeks.

Even after the flooding in the city is over, the access to most of our project sites were mostly impossible until around the end of August.

Almost all the villagers in the EAG(Ethnic Armed Group) areas were living without electricity since they were born and education to them how to use electricity (especially the specific character of solar power system) is critical for the sustainable use of the equipment.  As the installation works of the solar systems were completed by the end of May, BHN started monitoring activities in all the villages in late August but frequently hampered by remaining after-effects of the floods.

Basically, monitoring activities are conducted to listen to the voices of recipients and to adopt their opinions for future activities.   However, as mentioned above, for almost all the villagers, “Electricity at Home” is quite a new phenomenon in their life and repeated basic education on how to make efficient & economical use of electrical equipment under solar system is also an important mission for the monitoring teams.

Along with our monitoring team, engineers of the construction companies and “Solar Supporters” (selected from the villagers and joined in the construction works of the solar systems) are accompanying with BHN team and whenever necessary, they could fix at once all the troubles of the solar equipment.