Sustainable energy support for healthposts

Since more than a year, Stichting Veldwerk is active in the Dhading district, in the villages Nalang and Salang. Because of the beautiful natural surroundings it is a privilege to be and work there, although it is less romantic for the local population. The activities we conduct are covered by the name “Rural Community Development”. This can be translated as “helping the communities in remote mountain areas by using their own capabilities”

Unica Foundation supports part of the activities of Stichting Veldwerk in the Dhading district. In the past year, the six health posts are provided:
– a hot water supply based on solar energy
– on solar powered facility for communication tools such as radios and televisions,
– two special refrigerators on solar energy

These refrigerators are so special because they have a very low energy consumption, which makes it possible to power them by solar energy.

Recently we paid a visit to these projects, and it seems that they are perfectly being used. The refrigerators, with a total capacity of 32 litres, contain a cooling and freezing compartment. The cooling compartment is used for the storage of vaccinations against rabies, tetanus, tuberculoses and hepatitis which all need to be stored at a temperature of 8 degrees.

Previously the population lost two full days to retrieve such injections in the nearest health post. It took one full day to go and one full day to come back in the hilly area. With the new refrigerators on solar energy, instead of two days it just take nearly one hour. The doctor who is working in one of the health posts is also visiting a variety of locations every month. For the carriage of the vaccination, he uses a special cold case where coolingbags from the freezer section are put in. In this way the first aid post becomes a mobile post with an even bigger range. The refrigerators are in use for about four months and people are really enthusiastic about it.