Sai Nagar, AP

November 2019

People: 100

Intervention

Street Lights

Lives Impacted

Homes Illuminated

Donor

Bharat Serums Vaccines Ltd

Grassroot Partner

Think Peace Foundation

Diagnosis

In the Sai Nagar village in Andhra Pradesh, children were exposed to negative forces outside the schooling hours. With a short school day, they would often return to homes with limited electricity, only to be surrounded by the terrorism struck region and its realities. To protect them from the same, Think Peach Foundation reached out to us for an interesting intervention. With the hope of extending the students’ school, we provided solar street lights that functioned like floodlights in a sports ground. This allowed students to stay back after school for many hours with the purpose of being engaged in sporting activities, protecting them from the outside situation. In addition, the girls were taught particular exercises to improve their posture, showing a significant improvement in their confidence, creating a pathway to empowerment for their future.

Intervention

Putting into action our transformation model, we provided all homes with solar home lighting solutions consisting while the ZP Primary School was provided with a Solar Power Pack and additional engagement tools like 2 pre-loaded e-learning pen drives that have the curriculum in a very engaging format, increasing productivity inside and outside the home, and also lowering the school dropout rate. The reduced dependence on kerosene, minimized carbon emissions and its resultant effects on health and the environment, while also creating an element of cost saving.

Transformation

To make a sustainable change and address the root of their poverty, we designed an intervention that brought water, and consequently consistent income and improved health indicators to the lives of the villagers. A solar lift irrigation system using a 10KW Solar PV System was designed to pull water from the River Kunti to two tanks.

To install the mini solar grid, one of the villagers, Shri Manohar Gahale donated part of his land and was very keen to see the future of the village youth improving as a result. The first tank stored water for the irrigation of farmlands of 16 farmers while the second tank proposed to irrigate the farmlands of 7 farmers. A Skyjuice ultrafiltration unit provided easily accessible clean drinking water to all the villagers, fighting the ill health and waterborne diseases faced by them.

Impact

As of this year, 32 farmers are now part of the agricultural fold, cultivating 18 acres of farmland. They multicrop fenugreek, ladyfinger, coriander, maize, millet, beans, and jasmine, earning an increased income for the village of over Rs. 3,00,000. A cold storage room provided to them with the support of IIT, is used to store the jasmine until it can be taken to main markets, increasing the market value of their produce.