Solar backpacks light way for poor Ivory Coast pupils
ALLEPILLA, Ivory Coast: The equatorial sun has been up for about an hour as a gaggle of children set off from the Ivorian village of Allepilla on their hourlong trek to school.
Back h ome in th e e vening, eight-year- old M arie-France Amoandji N gbessoo d oes h er homework by t he l ight o f h er backpack’s L ED — c aptured by solar p anels on her way t o a nd from school.
The l ight c an r un f or t hree hours.
With insects flitting overhead, Marie-France p oints t o t he pictures i n h er te xtbook, identifying t hem: “O range, plane... “
Allepilla, some 100 kilometres north o f th e W est A frican country’s eco nomic c apital Abidjan, i s a r ural c ommunity centred o n coco a a nd co ffee production.
As ingle p ump su pplies water to t he v illage of a round 400 inh abitants in cluding 1 50 children, a nd, a s i s t he c ase for t housands of v illages a nd hamlets a cross t he c ountry — there is no electricity.
Instead, o il-burning sto rm lanterns a nd b attery-powered torches a re t he o nly s ources of light.
An I vorian c harity th at promotes e ducation f or r ural girls, Y iwo Z one, has rai sed funds t o pr ovide t he b ackpacks — which cost 13,000 CFA francs (about R M97) a piece — to schoolchildren across Africa.
Computer sa lesman E variste Akoumian h ad t he i dea f or t he solar ba ckpack i n 2 015 w hen his c ar br oke d own a s n ight was falling near Soubre, in the southwest of the country.
I said to myself, ‘We must give them light so they can study. It’s not normal for rural children to be unable to do so. Evariste Akoumian, computer salesman
“At t he s ame t ime, ch ildren were re turning h ome f rom school,” he recalls. “I said to myself, ‘We must give them light so they can study. It’s not normal for rural children to be unable to do so.”
The I vorian go vernment has s et a t arget of en suring electricity to 8 0 p er c ent of t he country.
“These rur al c hildren ar e poor. T hey us e ri ce sa cks o r plastic bags to take their things to school,” Akoumian said.
“The idea was to kill two birds with o ne sto ne: g ive t hem a backpack with a light to go with it.”
T he entrepreneur stressed that the solar backpacks belong to the children: “So Dad or Mum can’t come a nd t ake t he l ight f rom them... t o u se w hile th ey ar e cooking or doing housework.”
Sales a re b risk a nd h ave reached 55 ,000. Ak oumian’s company So larpak a lready sells t he b ackpacks i n G abon, Madagascar and Burkina Faso, as well as to charities in France and Germany.
Striving t o k eep u p wi th demand, A koumian i s s eeking aid or loans so that he can set up an assembly plant in Abidjan and boost production.
“It may seem cheap, but these are large sums that the villagers don’t have,” said Anna Corinne Menet E zinlin, he ad o f Y wo Zone.
“Here in th is v illage s ome people ca n’t a fford t he s chool fees or even not ebooks. Usu ally school i s f ree, b ut th ere ar e always r egistration fe es or (other) payments.”
Last y ear, M arie-France’s 1 3year- old s ister Lucien ne c ould not at tend s chool at a ll b ecause their mother was of f work with an illness.
“It’s h ard f or t he ch ildren,” said v illage ch ief J ean-Baptiste Kotchi Okoma, whose seven-yearold daughter Nethania received a so lar ba ckpack. “There’s n ot enough money here.”
He added: “I hope their marks will be be tter. C hildren a re disadvantaged h ere. W ith t he backpack, I h ope t hey w ill a ll progress.”
Lucienne, fl ipping thr ough a book, said: “I am happy. Before it was more d ifficult. It ’s e asier now, with the backpack.” — AFP