The small town of Beer Thialane, also called Berr Tialane, is 60 km away from Dakar, the capital of Senegal. A medical centre is located in the town. One of the main tasks of the centre is to support women before, during and after childbirth. On average, 20 children are born at the clinic each month. Although there is a public electricity supply, it is very unreliable and there are numerous electricity outages. The head doctor of the birthing centre reports that some children are delivered only with the illumination of mobile phones. However, the hands that are then needed for lighting are missing to support the birth. A reliable and constant power supply is therefore urgently needed to enable the women to give birth to their children safely.
To solve this problem, the
Greening Africa Together project planned to provide a power supply for the clinic using solar energy. On the one hand, this will enable the clinic to have a reliable and stable power supply, and on the other hand, this will also contribute significantly to carbon dioxide savings, as electricity from fossil fuel sources can be replaced with emission-free solar energy.
Three different groups are involved in the implementation of the project. An NGO from Senegal called
Foret Internationale is coordinating the project. The implementation and planning of the project was done in cooperation with students from Senegal as well as from other countries such as Tunisia, Ecuador and Germany. The third important group is the local community, which should be involved in the project from the beginning, as the project should provide added value for them by focusing on their needs. In addition, the involvement of the community should make the project sustainable.
We at
Greening Africa Together are a non-profit network of NGOs, universities and institutions that have set ourselves the goal of encouraging and supporting especially young people in the fight against climate change in order to create perspectives in Africa together. In doing so, we work closely with our partner universities in Africa and the local population.
Visit us at:
http://greeningafricatogether.org/
