Electricity and Light for the Poor in Cameroon

Solar power has an amazing impact on the environment and we have seen a great increase in renewables in Germany in the past decades. Luckily, most of us are fortunate enough to afford their own solar panels. But imagine a world in which you depend on independent sources of energy production, because your village isn't even connected to the grid? That gives us a whole new perspective and we as ECON CSR would like to support this great initiative by the ISC Konstanz, that donates solar cells to the poor in Cameroon. Every contribution counts, especially because ECON will double the amount up to 1.000€ - many thanks in advance!

.................................................................................................................

Let's watch small villages in Central Cameroon take a big step forward! Through assissting small households, schools and hospitals with solar electricity, people can help themselves to better education, health care, economic independence in a sustainable way!

What is SLAK? “Strom und Licht für Arme in Kamerun” is a project series of the International Solar Energy Research Center in Konstanz. Ever since the successful establishment of the very first Cameroonian solar village in Bodbadjang in 2009, we have received many requests from other villages, hospitals and schools to help out with solar electrification – all in areas with no or unstable electricity.

What have we accomplished? Bodbadjang and Ndambog are two of the many small basaa villages in the Sanaga-Maritime region where inhabitants live from agriculture, fishing and hunting. In 5 projects we have up to now provided 80 households, two hospitals and two schools with solar electricity by installing solar-home-systems. In addition we helped a technical high-school in Douala to stabilize its current through solar panels.

What impacts can be expected? Villagers get the possibility to use electric light in the evenings for studying and extra worktime. High costs of kerosene (5 EUR per month) are saved and above all the recurrent eye and respiratory diseases resulting from poisonous kerosene smoke are eliminated. This solution is environment friendly and sustainable – the best way for Africa where sunlight is a resource in abundance!

What is our input? The ISC Konstanz e.V, a small solar research centre, is more than happy to donate the solar cells, coordinate the project and provide for the installation. Furthermore: while teaching the inhabitants how to maintain the system, the local youth receives a free (solar) technical basis education, enabling them to take care of their own installations and maybe even engage in a job with solar later on. Those are some of the long-term impacts of these demo electrification projects.

Why do we need you? As a non-governmental organization, we can only afford to take over about 30-40% of the costs, that's why we depend on donations to make Africa the bright place it deserves to be!