For the first time, Menicurve inhabitants enjoyed electricity supply in their respective homes. The voices of the people dropping to a whisper, tears dripping on aged people, and you could see children rolling on the ground in joyousness. The accomplishment was seen as much more profound for the people.
“In this village, we used to study with kerosene lamps, because we have ineffective torch light, which cannot last longer, we strenuously spend shorter period studying at night; a reason for some of our poor academic performances, especially in public exams.” Quoting Mariama Kamara, a Senior Secondary School, SSS2 pupil.
I feel very excited, as I used to spend over twenty thousand leones to buy batteries for the home and to ensure my children study well at night. With the solar installation, I no longer have to spend that amount. The money can now be added to prepare lunch for my school children. This is what we called development, a sucking mother explained.
Barefoot Women is an organization comprises ordinary uneducated women in Western Rural Sierra Leone. They were trained on solar light installation in the People’s Republic of China.
This installation which worth about thirty-seven thousand Euros, as the women submitted facilitates support rural solar electrification country wide. The home light solar system is a twenty watts panel that can contain three bulbs with a provision for charging of phones, Radios, Ipad among many other rechargeable appliances.
Nancy Kanu, Chief Solar Engineer and Manager of the Barefoot Women Solar Engineers Association said the installation of solar lights in villages was to improve the lives of community people in the country. The people are expected to pay just fifteen thousand Leones monthly; an amount that we considered affordable for every home.
The representative of Bintumani D Sierra Leone Kenneth Koker encouraged Menicurve community inhabitants to consider the installation of the solar light system as a development that should be embraced in totality, because other villages and towns are yearning for similar opportunity.
Barefoot Women Solar Engineers Association said electricity spins the wheel of development, as it registers achievement in developing countries, in which Sierra Leone is no exception. The association said by 2020, many homes in rural areas of the country would have got solar electricity.
