Energy

My village is not on the grid. What little energy you see is either powered by solar energy or by gas generators. Even my clinic is not fully powered. The main building where we treat any wounds or illnesses has lights at night, but the pharmacy and the more importantly the maternity do not. So, women have to give birth by flashlight.

So, the previous volunteer got funding for a battery, a solar panel, and the necessary materials for installation. I haven't seen the budget, but I am assuming the expected contribution from the community was the cost of installation. When I got to village the panel was not installed and was being used to charge other things. My amateur electrician friend said he would install it for free and offered his services to the clinic. They were reluctant, but eventually agreed. The first thing he needed to do was test the battery that had been funded by the previous volunteer's efforts. The neglected battery could not hold a charge.

I am not sure where the process broke down, but it did. Now, my counterpart suggested (without consulting me) that I will be getting money for a new battery since they had neglected the first. Not exactly ideal. It is one of those ethical dilemmas where on one hand the resulting product of a project would be very important, but on the other hand the project would be essentially paying for something that should already be provided.

I don't necessarily blame my clinic, I mean none of them are electricians and maybe the volunteer left before the project was done. Or maybe the panel was installed in the old maternity, but was not transferred when the new maternity. That is a common issue I have seen in development is that projects often help with an initial cost but the maintenance costs are either not accounted for by the project or the receiving group does not hold up their end of the deal.

Maybe I need to do more investigation to see what really happened and what can be done. I guess I am at the point in my 2 year crash course in development where I see a lot of the issues that prevent successful, sustainable projects but I don't necessarily have easy solutions. Then again, I suppose Peace Corps and other NGOs wouldn't exist if there were easy solutions. It would be great if I could solve all the problems in my village, but I am not that capable despite the confidence of my friends and family. I'll keep you updated on this one.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Airtel Burkina Faso.