Boarding School Installation
Our solar for education program aims to bring reliable energy access to educational infrastructure in marginalized and indigenous communities of Myanmar, so that the educators can continue caring for their students with dignity, safety, and peace of mind. Atutu partnered with a boarding school in Southern Kachin to provide solar energy to power crucial services. The boarding school is hosted by a monastery led by Buddhist nuns where they educate and care for twenty vulnerable students from 3 to 15 years old.
In July 2023, the school was suddenly cut from the power grid and left in the dark with no access to electricity. As a result of the power outage, the students were unable to continue their education. The staff and teachers were unable to use electricity for cooking, cleaning and water pumping. In addition to disruption to daily tasks, the safety of the students and nuns were also at risk.
As part of our solar for education program, we were able to respond quickly and get the power back up at the school by mobilizing our local network and our field technicians. Despite rough roads and harsh weather conditions, the Atutu team was met at the monastery with eager assistance from staff and neighbors, and was able to install solar systems to power 4 buildings. With the generous matching funds from local businesses and individuals, Atutu successfully installed and commissioned our solar microgrid to restore power.
Staff at the school reached out to Atutu to explain the situation and asked for our support to get the electricity back on. They had resorted to borrowing a small solar panel in order to keep the cell phones charged for communication. With the interruption, the school had to pivot to pumping water manually and heating with wood and charcoal burning stoves. They lost access to refrigeration, lighting, electric appliances, and their water pump. As a women-led boarding school, the inability to charge communication devices and the lack of lighting became safety concerns. Additionally, students had halted all educational activities to aid the nuns in offsetting the manual labor load driven by the power outage.
The monastery’s system has:
3.4 kW of ground mount solar power
5 kW inverter
5kWh of lithium iron phosphate battery
The financial breakdown looks like this:
Local Private Donors 45.56%
Monastery Funds 12.97%
Atutu Funds 41.47%
Our microgrid empowered the monastery to resume operation after 40 days suspension. With renewed access to electricity, the students resumed their daily routines and were able to continue learning. Functions such as cooking became easier as staff and nuns could now rely on electric water pumps and kitchen appliances. They could also resume using sewing machines to make or repair the children’s clothes. With our system, the school was able to resume their mission to care for vulnerable children in Southern Kachin .
The head nun of the monastery left a message for Atutu and our partners:
“With Atutu’s solar installation, we are able to resume our operations and services. Our children can study with lights again. We don’t see this act as charity, but as an act of loving compassion for marginalized children of our community. … I hope Atutu can continue to bring energy access to those living without electricity in remote and hard to reach regions. May they be a reliable support structure for many other marginalized communities who need the support.”
