Solar Buddy Report 20/22

  

 

This year marks the 6^th continuous year the Kenmore Rotary has been involved with Solar Buddy program in the western suburbs, having started in 2017 when the Solar Buddy organisation was just commencing operation in Brisbane. 

 

 

Solar Buddy is an Australian registered charity started by CEO Simon Doble in 2016, with a goal to end the devastating cycle of energy poverty for marginalised communities across the world. They aim to achieve this by educating Australian children about energy poverty, renewable energy and global citizenship.

By working through service organisations such as Rotary to identify local primary schools, Solar Buddy connects Australian school communities who want to make a difference with other children and communities in areas throughout the world that live in energy poverty. They now also work through corporate enterprises with staff training workshops, and the schools’ program has been approved by the Qld Dept of Education.

Purchasing and building a Solar Buddy light at school teaches Australian school children about the positive impact of renewable energy on communities living in energy poverty. Sending that light to a student in another country, along with a personal letter, can make a dramatic difference to the life of a child in need.

 Our club has always requested that our lights go to PNG where only 20% of the whole PNG population has access to regular electricity, mostly in larger towns, but in rural areas, it is only 12%. Solar Buddy arranges for manufacture, supply and delivery of the lights, and maintenance, and distribution via the Kokoda track foundation. Many small remote communities would only have kerosene lighting at night, which have health & safety issues limiting some school children being able to read or do homework at night. This fits in to Rotary’s motto “Service above Self” and the 4th Object- “Advancement of International Understanding, Goodwill and Peace”. 

The Solar Buddy organisation web site is  https://solarbuddy.org/  covering their program.

 

The club completed a program of 3 schools, St Peters Aug 2021, CHSS April 2022, and OLR May 2022, and the last of the district grants of 2/3 our cost. The attached history table shows the full details of the whole 6 years of the program. The 2021 lights were delivered to Simbai School in Madang Province in the NW of PNG. (See Map below) The 2022 lights are yet to be delivered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solar Buddy recently advised the club that they have made overseas deliveries of the lights based on immediate needs and in-country partners' capacities at any point in time to undertake distribution, assessment, and reporting. Only countries names have been given, not individual schools. Our country of preference has always been PNG.

The report covered late 2021 and early 2022 as follows:

 

Kenmore State School—2021---125 Lights to PNG. (No assembly in 2022)

 

St Peters Lutheran College- 2021—125 Solar Buddy lights to Cambodia, SE Asia.

                                                  2022-   !25 Solar Buddy lights awaiting final “quality control” 

 

Chapel Hill State School- 2022 –-50 Lights to Timor Leste

 

OLR School-2022—50 Lights  to Timor Leste.

 

Photos supplied by Solar Buddy have been filed under “Club Photo Albums/Solar Lights Overseas Delivery 2022”

 

                                Brian Becconsall   Nov 2022