Trócaire is a long-standing Special Partner for ElectricAid, and they have a long-standing presence in Nicaragua. Latin America is a region in which ElectricAid hopes to do more funding, so we are well matched with Trócaire.
68% of the rural population in Nicaragua have no access to the electricity grid, and the typical wait for grid connection for remote rural communities is 20 years. Solar offers an obvious interim solution, but poor rural communities need subsidization to make solar power available to them. This project targeted 55 families in 14 rural communities in Matagalpa, although financial constraints meant that ElectricAid was only able to pay €12,960 for 45 panels & connections, so 10 families were left unserved – this is the reality of budgetary disciplines.
The overall project has been a wonderful success, in serving 400 people by transforming their lives, in allowing 200 children study in the evenings, in training young people in installation & maintenance of the panels, and in significant health and environmental benefits. If any body of people appreciate the benefits of rural electrification, it has to be the ElectricAid community.
Please read Trócaire’s highly accessible (and illuminating?) report for a real flavour of how relatively small amounts of well-targeted money can be so effective in transforming lives. 16-A-093 REPORT 14102017
Stop Press! Please read Irish Times article of 13.11.2017 discussing this and other solar programmes in Nicaragua: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/solar-energy-like-light-from-heaven-for-rural-nicaragua-1.3289224
The featured picture is of the installation of 5 solar panels in a neighbourhood in the community of Quilile in El Tuma La Dalia. At more than 45 km from the main city, it is one of the most remote villages in the municipality.
electricaid.ie 