Mar 27, 2014

Zanzibar: New Much-Needed Job Opportunities For Villagers


A Welsh company is giving new hope and job opportunities to villagers in Zanzibar by installing solar power systems and training installers. The people in Zanzibar, with an average income of just 60p a day and up to 90% unemployment amongst the youth, are amongst the poorest on earth. 

Below is an article published by eTurboNews Group

A small Welsh company is helping to give new hope and job opportunities to villagers in Zanzibar. With an average income of just 60p a day and up to 90 per cent unemployment amongst the young, these are some of the poorest people on earth.

Carmarthen based Sazani Associates, with the help of the Welsh Government and Comic Relief, has completed a project installing solar power systems at 20 villages across the northern district of the island. And at the same time they have helped create a new co-operative of more than 40 trained installers which already plans to expand to build a new sustainable business.

Now Pembrokeshire solar engineer James Ramage has been out to the tropical island checking out the systems for Sazani and was pleasantly surprised with what he found, as he told the new solar team at a workshop event at Mkokotoni college. "Not only were all the systems competently installed, but the team had found their own solutions to make them fit their needs better," James told the training meeting.

The plan across the scheme is to make a small charge for local people to use the electricity, whether for computer study or mobile charging, to help build a maintenance and replacement fund for the systems. "Our hope is that this highly skilled team will now be able to market their abilities to the wider community across Zanzibar and create their own self-supporting business that allows others to benefit from solar power and provides them with an income, " said James.

Power shortages have a direct impact on education and communication as well as ordinary day to day to life because, situated close to the equator, sunset comes early and suddenly.
Mobile phone masts have sprung up across the whole island - the signal is better than in most parts of rural Wales - and phones themselves are comparatively cheap.

 

Power cuts are usually a minor annoyance in Wales, caused by severe weather and storms. But in rural Zanzibar for many villages the supply is sporadic all the time - that is if they are on the grid at all.

Two local electrical engineers have been trained as photo-voltaic installers at Mkokotoni technical college. They in turn have trained two local young people in each village across the district how to install and maintain the systems in each village.

"So not only are those young people benefitting from being able to carry on studying after dark - for many of the girls this is the only time they can study because of the chores they have to do around the home - they have now created a solar installation cooperative to bid for local contracts," said James.

Because with youth unemployment currently running at 90 per cent, there is a drive to encourage self-employment, an approach Comic Relief is supporting across Africa.  Villagers pay a small amount to the local solar committee for using solar power and the money is used to cover maintenance and replacement equipment costs - giving local young people a source of income.

The 100 watt, battery operated systems - which cost just £500 each - also mean that up to 24 mobile phones can be charged at any one time, a vital communication tool for new trade which villagers are trying to build up to increase their incomes. The average wage is just 60p a day.

So the mobile phone has become the key to rural people finding a better, more lucrative market for their produce in Stone Town, the capital. A simple code system means they can tell buyers their produce is on the way on one of the ubiquitous dala-dala, small Japanese minibuses which transport people and goods at break-neck speed around Zanzibar. Money can also be transferred by phone to rural producers.

Photo © Jbobo7