EPI - Project Quandaries

I’ve been thinking about so many things in regard to this project. For example, the church here subsidizes scriptures but they don’t give them out for free. This creates a sense of ownership and also encourages the people to take care of it because they won’t get another one for free. We can charge, maybe, $50 for a merry-go-round (to the community, or for the PTA to raise) compared to the $1,200 it costs. I think if we charge a small rental fee for lanterns and let all the proceeds go to the school (for fixing roofs, buying books, etc) it could be a good system, instead of giving it free and all the lanterns getting lost, or not being used. The question is, how do you trust whoever is in charge that they will not pocket it? And who will be in charge? People will also travel far distances from their villages to charge cell phones for 50 cents. We could charge 50 cents for them to charge their cell phones in their village and have the proceeds go to the school. The problem is, the system. We can’t put trust in people. The other problem is we don’t want to break any laws and there are not supposed to be any ‘school fees’ at public schools. So we might run into problems charging for the equipment. I think charging for the lantern rental would be okay because it is private use. Another reason I like them paying a rental fee is that at so many schools, the community members would ask what we were going to give them. At one, they even said, “we know that because we have seen white faces in our community, they are going to solve all our problems.” That kind of thinking is crippling to a nation like this and it made me so mad! We can’t be another NGO dropping in random free stuff and having them expect it. It will empower the community so much more if they have to gather and raise a little money for this thing. They will start getting together and talking about problems and coming up with solutions as they figure out for themselves HOW to use this energy to best serve their particular situation in their community. It might get them going on how to solve other issues as well instead of sitting around waiting for a white person.

Another way of increasing ownership would be that the school has to apply for playground equipment and come up with their own system of what the electricity will be used for and how they can distribute it. They will also need to buy a subsidized lantern back if one breaks and they want a replacement. I would love to use the lights IN the classrooms that are dark, but there would not be enough energy to support that every day. Perhaps it could work for stormy days only when the windows are closed. We can’t do fluorescent lights in Ghana (which could have been a possibility) because the heat attracts mosquitoes, which is bad because of malaria.

After visiting the schools, I have more of an idea of what selection criteria to use in choosing a school. There has to be community leadership and unity (one village I visited had a conflict over who the chief was going to be and ended up on national news). There has to be a good headmaster (although they tend to be transient, they can get the system off to a good start). The students should be disciplined and listen to the teachers. They have to have books and supplies so they can study. A strong PTA and teacher enthusiasm are important. The distance they have to walk to get to school could be a factor (one school I visited, it takes them an hour to walk, it’s muddy, and sometimes they have to swim, or they only come to school 2-3 days out of the week because of the rain and the nature of the path). The size of the school is a factor because if there are too many students, they will both crowd the mgr, and it will be impossible to distribute lanterns. Community activities are a factor because if the kids farm all day outside of school and are too tired by the end, they may not even use light for studying. Or the parents could get upset because they are playing after school instead of coming home to farm. Some schools have very difficult, bumpy, easily-flooded roads that could prevent us from coming for maintenance work. I’m sure there are more, but these are a few items to take into consideration. I can't yet rate this selection criteria. It seems to me if one of the factors is bad enough to a degree, the school shouldn't be considered at all. There is bound to be a trade-off at any school and sometimes I feel that since these are factors that cannot necessarily be quantified, going with the gut might end up being the best selection criteria. The gut never lies.