Uganda main campus installs new solar power solution; takes major step toward high school accreditation

Photo: The new solar installation has radically transformed our campus which is in an area of Uganda with no available public electrical supply.

We are happy to report that the new solar power system was installed at our Uganda main campus on December 5, 2015. The system was funded by a grant from the French foundation, Fondation Total. The new solar solution is a major upgrade from the small-scale solar generator previously located on campus. In this part of Uganda there is no public electrical service whatsoever, thus we needed to come up with our own power solution. The new solar power system is five times more powerful than our old system, made up of 6 large panels, a large inverter, a regulator, batteries, bulbs, and a main switch which regulates the power. All of these features enable us to run several important electrical appliances on campus.

The new solar power system is a huge blessing to our children and our native team. We now have enough lights inside and outside the main orphan home which add a more modern quality to their lives; we have flushing toilets and private bathrooms inside the house; and we can use electrical appliances such as microwaves, refrigerators, and computers, which help to simplify their lives. Before the installation of the new solar power system, life was very hard for the children — they had to bathe with buckets of water in the bushes at night which was dangerous and frightening.

Thanks to your contributions and donations from our generous donors, we are also in the process of installing a standby generator in the event that we have problems with our solar power, especially when there is no adequate sunshine to power the solar power system. The standby generator is powerful enough to pump all of the water needed on campus, to provide enough power to light up the whole campus, and to support all of the electricity needed on campus as well. The standby generator installation should also be complete within two weeks after we finish laying down cables to connect all of the buildings on campus.

01_2016UgandaPicFramePhoto inset: (Top-left): Workers unpack new solar panels for our main campus. (Top-right): Students at our secondary school are excited for the opportunity to learn. (Bottom-left): A student at our primary school is thankful for her textbooks provided by our team. (Bottom-right): A teacher is grateful for her bike which enables to her to travel more efficiently and safely to our school.

In other good news, our high school has been registered to be fully accredited. The only step left in the process is to receive a center number. The center number gives our high school the official status to allow students to take their national exams on the school premises. Our full accreditation will also enable us to enroll more paying students (which will allow us to offer more scholarships), give our students confidence that our school will be successful, enable us to save money that would be spent by taking candidate students to other schools for their national exams, and our teachers will be able to go through training to learn how to give the national exams, which will give our school more positive exposure. It will also greatly help establish the children’s future as they will be able to study in a registered and licensed school, thus giving them peace of mind as they pursue their studies.

Lastly, our native team is placing orders for 25 bicycles and 2 motorcycles, but with your support, they hope to purchase a total of 40 bicycles. The bicycles will help our teachers serve the children more efficiently because they will be able to reach our schools quickly — they currently have to walk many miles from their homes to our schools. The bicycles will also boost the morale of our teachers, enable them to arrive at school on time, and will make the children happy to see their beloved teachers utilizing much easier transportation, no longer struggling by walking such a long way.

We look forward to reporting back about our progress in getting our school fully accredited, and purchasing more bicycles. We are thankful for your generous support which makes these improvements possible, blessing the lives of our students and teachers.

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