The Notre Dame Hostel in Tanzania provides lodging, food, and care for both orphans and rural students at Notre Dame Schools. These 450 students range from 7 to 17 years old. The project of installing solar heaters and lights was to enable the students, the staff and the sisters to work effectively without inconvenience of power cuts. For the boarding students in particular, Notre Dame Hostel needed to ensure access to hot water for bathing and cooking as well as electricity for lighting and heating. The Solar Installation Project was made possible by a grant from the Hilton Fund for Sisters.
Before the Solar Installation, the hostel lacked a backup energy source to the boarding facility. The security system and essential devices can now use the power from the solar reducing the electrical expenses since they operate for 24 hours. It is of especial importance to maintain our security system and closed-circuit television cameras during power outages in order to protect the 500 boarding residents at night and the 950 students during the day. The overall plan also includes additional solar powered lighting in the outdoor assembly and car park areas to further enhance security at night. Unlike schools where the majority of students attend during the day and return home at night, Notre Dame Hostel houses more than half of the students at Notre Dame School.
A separate solar panel and backup battery is powering the water heater and pump so that sanitation, personal hygiene, and cooking continues not only during power outages but throughout.The learners are taught, they can eat on time and maintain the personal and general hygiene with the provision of hot water. The Solar installation project is a means to cope with the outages while still maintaining a safe, healthy environment for our boarding students, those who come at day time, the staff and the sisters. Episodes of intermittent power failure, which are very common in Arusha, no longer prevent the hostel residents from learning, eating, and cleaning.
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