February 23, 2018
Unica Foundation has supported the installation of solar PV system in two locations, Simikot of Humla and Kshamawati Higher Secondary School in Dolakha district. The installation work has been completed recently.
Solar PV system for Blind School in Simikot
The Himalayan Education & Development (HEAD Nepal), a Nepali NGO, has been working for the empowerment and development of people with disabilities in this Himalayan region. The organization was founded in 2011 by Mr. Chhitup Lama, with the active participation of the local people of Humla.
HEAD Nepal basically works with all kinds of persons with disabilities in Humla district. Head Enable Home and Head Vision Home are the main projects HEAD Nepal is undertaking, among others. These two projects focus on skill development, education as well as sheltering for children with different disabilities including the blindness.
Blind and disabled children get computers to learn in the shelter there in Simikot. However severe crunch of steady power supply was obstructing their learnings as they had no option but mediocre local grid to rely on.
They came up with request to Unica Foundation to support independent solar PV system. Unica Foundation agreed and awarded the contract to Sunshine Energy Pvt Ltd. The stipulated task has been completed now and the children has benefited from the regular supply of power from the solar energy.
The Dutch organizations Wilde Ganzen and Stichting Nepal Geeft have also contributed with us to realize this project. As Simikot is not connected by road access, the transportation of the solar system was managed by airlifting from Nepalgunj. The project served 65 direct and 300+ indirect beneficiaries and completed in December 2017.
Solar PV System for community school in Dolakha
Dolakha is one of the mountainous districts in the north-eastern belt of Kathmandu that borders with Tibet. The Kshamawati Higher Secondary School is located in this district. The school was established as a basic primary school in 1948 and upgraded to high school in 1960 and is the oldest high school of the region.
Suspa Kshamawati, where the school is located, is considered as the original abode of the Thami ethnic group of Nepal, one of the most marginalized ethnic community according to Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN)’s data. The school has 80 percent of students from this ethnic group. The school got severely damaged from the earthquake in April 2015 and renovated now from the support of different philanthropists including some of the alumnus.
Like many other governmental schools throughout Nepal, Kshamawati School also face challenges of lack of resources which resulted in poor infrastructures as well as substandard teaching-learning environment. The school has 417 student and 20 staff.
There is computer as well as audio visual classes for the students, but that had hampered due to unsteady power supply. Here Unica Foundation decided to support with solar PV system so that some 150 student could continue their computer lessons in the school without power interruption. The installation work has been completed in January 2018.
