Yayem is a village of around 1,500 inhabitants in the heart of Senegal’s Sine Saloum region. The NGO MEDIRAID, active in medical aid in Senegal, supports the school and a permaculture and medicinal plant project. It was to help these projects evolve that their president, Dr Delacroix, called on Energy Assistance and then wrote to us: “This short note is to thank you for the kindness, but above all the efficiency with which you handled the two Mediraid ASBL projects”.
The school was equipped with a stand-alone photovoltaic system comprising 9 x 450 Wp panels, giving a total output of 4050 W, and a 10 Kw lithium battery with a 6000 cycle life. This school, which also welcomes “different” children or those without official papers, receives no state aid. With this installation, the children will be able to attend school in decent learning conditions, and also take remedial classes in the evenings!
The farm building has been fitted with the same solar system, and the well has been equipped with a 0.3 kw Lorentz solar pump with a pumping capacity of 3.5 m³ per hour. The permaculture project aims to provide families embarking on this process with a solution for food and medical self-sufficiency, particularly in the fight against hypertension, diabetes, malaria and malnutrition. Dr. Delacroix confirms that the farm building “will also enable us to welcome volunteers from Belgium in optimal conditions to give these training courses and follow the launch of the permaculture and medicinal plant part from this September, another year ahead of our schedule!”
After receipt of these installations in Yayem, our volunteers took the opportunity to visit two sites previously equipped by EA:
They were delighted to see that the solar installation at the “Les Cajoutiers” school in Warrang/Mbour is operating optimally, with a maintenance contract between the beneficiary and a local company to ensure the installation’s longevity.
In the Malem-Hodar region of Médina Safa, a devastating plague of locusts affected the entire region for over a month, damaging the pump used to supply a vegetable garden. The pump, still under warranty, was replaced by the local supplier and is now back in operation.
In addition, our volunteers helped plant 400 thorny trees, creating a natural hedge to protect the garden from undesirables.
The garden is now ready to supply fruit and vegetables all year round to the local population.
Finally, our volunteers also visited potential future projects to see if the project applications were feasible and met our criteria.
By focusing on certain regions, this enables Energy Assistance to monitor projects and study their long-term impact.
Our congratulations and thanks to project manager Freddy A. and the two volunteers Patrick D. and François M. (for whom this is their first assignment) who accompanied him on this wonderful mission.