Zimbabwe adventure helping light up lives (From Swindon Advertiser)

Zimbabwe adventure helping light up lives

6:40pm Thursday 16th February 2012 in News By Josh Layton

A PROJECT co-ordinator at Wiltshire Probation Trust has returned from a two-week trip to Zimbabwe to install 150 solar panelled lights, which will transform the lives of 20,000 people.

Tracy Geiran was working in partnership with Cricklade-based charity Lights For Learning, whose work with rural Zimbabwean communities has seen school exam pass rates up by 541 per cent and a dramatic drop in the infant mortality rate.

Tracy’s involvement in the trip stemmed from an initiative set up by Wiltshire Probation last year, which saw offenders involved in Community Payback programmes working, on behalf of the local charity, to make the light units needed in the communities they have now been sent to. Lights for Learning works to meet the needs of African schools and clinics reliant on inefficient and potentially life-threatening kerosene lamps as their only source of light.

By providing communities with easy to install and energy efficient solar-powered light units, the charity has been able to transform the lives of thousands of people.

It has been estimated that the 400 electrical components produced by the offenders for this trip will impact the lives of some 20,000 individuals in Zimbabwe during the coming year.

Tracy said: “A member of the local royal family turned up at a remote school in Mapungwana, leading a procession round every classroom we’d installed lights in. In each room he led the crowd in a service of thanks, with singing and prayers.”

Lights for Learning was keen to partner with the Probation Trust as it enabled the charity to increase production of the light systems, having previously relied heavily on a volunteer workforce.

Wiltshire Probation is also quick to identify the substantial benefits of the scheme, which sees the offenders involved gaining valuable skills in a working environment. They ultimately receive an NVQ Level 2 qualification in Performing Manufacturing Operations and two of last year’s cohort went on to secure job interviews purely on the basis of their involvement in the project and the soldering skills they had developed during the scheme.

Christine Simon, a Community Payback Supervisor at Wiltshire Probation, says of the programme: “It’s a win-win situation. Not only are the offenders working hard and learning valuable skills, but the units they’re providing will make a real difference to the lives of so many.”

The Probation and Lights For Learning volunteers were invited, in this instance, by the Zimbab-wean Education Minister. While there, they travelled to some of the most rural communities in the country. The team installed light systems in nine schools along the Mozambique border, in response to a national drive towards improving standards in the country's schools.