Sustainable Schools Africa is a project set up by us, the Global Good Blog Editors, to provide clean, sustainable energy, as well as safe, sustainable food resources, to Africa's poorest communities.

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We have seen many ways in which climate change is impacting countries all over the world.  In Zimbabwe, erratic and unreliable rainfall has caused successive droughts over several years, which has led to severe water shortages in dams that feed hydroelectric power stations. Last year, power was rationed in many areas.  This year, many communities have been left with no electricity supply since the last dry season (June-November 2019).  For higher altitude areas of Zimbabwe this causes another major welfare problem for the community - the clean water supply they have been relying upon is pumped from deep boreholes.  These boreholes contain clean water but are too deep to pump by hand.  Diesel generators are the only back-up they have, but fuel prices are rising rapidly in Zimbabwe and generators are expensive, as well as highly polluting.  This leaves local people no option but to collect water from dams or streams, many of which contain harmful bacteria and parasites such as bilharzia.  These polluted water resources are often several miles from a community and lack of transport means water has to be carried on foot.

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Numwa Schools & Community

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The first phase of this project is to provide a neighbouring primary and secondary school with enough solar energy to run their borehole water pump.  The pump also supplies rural homes in the community and the teacher's houses.  With sufficient funds, we will also supply the main school buildings with solar lighting and the teacher's houses with solar power to provide lighting and run basic electrical appliances (such as a fridge and cooker).  Currently teachers are working all day, then need to cook on an open fire in the dark before they can eat or even make a cup of tea!

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What We Need: