Solar-powered smiles in Songea

The Vincentian Fathers, who run our Mbinga sponsor site, opened the De Paul School in the district of Songea, Tanzania with a vision: offering high-quality education for a cost that was within reach of the area’s small-scale farmers and other low-waged families. 

The Fathers were successful in their goals: today, De Paul School educates 1349 children and is renowned for the quality of the students’ academic performance. The school also has a hostel that houses 140 students. 

But the Songea region experiences frequent power cuts. They usually occur during school hours, or during the evening when the children are studying in the classrooms or in the hostel. These unpredictable outages interrupted administrative, educational, and extra-curricular activities, such as computer class, laboratory classes and the students’ evening studies. The teachers were frustrated when they could not prepare their teaching materials, print instructions, or make their lesson plans. For the past two years, the outages were so disruptive, the teachers resorted to writing out hundreds of report cards in long-hand. 

The school also relied on electric power to access their water supply. The outages made it difficult for the children to access clean water for drinking, washing, or using the lavatories. It also affected their ability to irrigate their school garden, which, when thriving, has the capacity to produce enough vegetables and grain to feed the children for their daily school meals. 

That’s why the Mbinga site partnered with Chalice to bring momentous change to De Paul School by installing a solar power system. The solar system would provide lighting for the whole school campus, power the water pump, and power all the auxiliary rooms, such as the computer class, laboratories, and printers. 

Thanks to the generosity of Chalice donors, the Mbinga site has successfully completed the project! 

This new, reliable source of electricity will bring many improvements to the daily lives and learning experience of the staff and students. Consistent power will put an end to the interruptions and improve the quality of their education. No disruptions to water access will improve their health and hygiene. Irrigation will fill the kitchen pantries with nutritious farm-fresh produce. As an added benefit, the school will save money by no longer having to pay for electrical utilities, which they will re-invest into the maintenance of the solar technology and other improvement projects for the school’s infrastructure. 

“It has been a great joy for the students and staff of De Paul School,” writes Fr. Cino, Mbinga site director. “With the support from our donors, we have successfully installed [a] solar power system that has 16 panel[s] and battery support. This is installed on the dining hall and the hostel where we can utilize the maximum sunlight of the day.” 

They have also installed a solar powered water pump, meaning no interruptions to running water. 

"With enough water in school,” Fr. Cino continues, “the irrigation of the school vegetable garden has been intensified to produce variety of vegetables - kales, spinach, indigenous vegetables, tomatoes and onions to supply to the school kitchen.

“Mbinga site and De Paul School," Fr. Cino writes, “send our sincere gratitude and sincere appreciation for your generous contribution that has helped us to improve the learning environment of our young students.

“We pray for many blessings upon your lives and pray to our God to bless you.”