Electrification
An essential component of economic
development in any nation and society
One of the very first projects we undertook was to bring electricity to St. Maria Gorretti school. Much like the government’s water pipe that reached the village of Kyojjomanyi, but not the school two kilometers away, so, too, did the power line reach the village, but not the school.
Without electricity, the school was stymied on so many fronts that it was hard to imagine. So, we collected funds from a handful of friends, and put up the electric poles and ran the wires to the school. That began to open up all kinds of possibilities.
Some of the new electrical wiring that has been installed on SMG grounds
SMG students celebrating the installation of the water pump system
Improved water availability was one of the early results. Rainwater is captured off of roofs on campus. It is channeled into both above and below ground tanks. While some of that water can be moved by gravity, the rest needs to be drawn and moved by pumps. This is how the bathrooms in the two story school building are supplied.
When the borehole was successful, a submersible pump needed to be installed, rather than a typical hand pump, because the water was at too great of a depth to be drawn up by a simple hand pump. The water is pumped up from the pumphouse to a high tank, one of the tallest structures in the village, and then fed down via gravity to the water distribution system installed by T.H.R.I.V.E. Foundation.
Look at the children’s unbridled joy — and, to think, they were collecting pond water and carrying it back by hand only a matter of years ago.
The combination of electricity and water created the possibility for a real laundry. This, in turn, created the opportunity to upgrade from hand washing clothing and linen with dirty water from a pond or government pipe, to washing with clean, hot water, and heated drying (for enhanced sanitation).
With 168 students residing on campus, this hand washing was an arduous process that yielded poor results. The addition of a passive, solar powered, hot water heater, and modern laundry equipment, has produced sanitized textiles with great labor savings.
LAUNDRY EQUIPMENT FOR SMG STUDENTS
Electricity brought lighting, both indoor for convenience, as well as outdoor for security. The indoor lighting created the ability to use the classrooms in the evening. This enabled the Foundation’s initiation of an adult education program.
This program targeted the illiterate subsistence farmers who cannot read or write their native Lugandan language, as well as any adults seeking to learn or improve their ability with English, the language of business, government, and law. This program has been well received by the residents, and teachers who have an additional source of income.
Night school students led by Fr. Peter
A BRIGHT, NEW FUTURE AT SCHOOL
Teaching capabilities and office productivity have improved with the Foundation-funded purchase of internet access via satellite dish and photocopying equipment to generate teaching materials, projection equipment for classroom instruction (and also recreation), and computers, for administrative purposes. The recent addition of donated electronic keyboards should strengthen and expand music opportunities for the students.
The electricity currently supplied via the government power line is subject to periodic outages. The Foundation is studying the feasibility of installing solar panels to mitigate these interruptions and provide a dependable supply by generating the vast majority of SMG’s electrical needs.
Generating its own power would move SMG to a higher level of self-sufficiency and a sustainable source of supply, like what SMG has already accomplished with water.
As SMG and the Foundation strive to improve the nutrition of the children fed on campus, refrigerators and freezers are expected to be added to the new kitchens to be built as part of the Capital Campaign. T.H.R.I.V.E. Foundation anticipates the addition of computers for instruction and use by the students, as part of their regular curriculum.
The Foundation also hopes to be able to provide power for equipment that could be used in the production on campus of craft goods for commercial sales and entrepreneurial training, as well as equipment for instruction in trades, for older youths and adults.
The two-story classroom fully wired for electricity and lighting up the night
The first of several computer stations at SMG