Today, we undertook a 170km trip to Imope village in Ikosi-Ejirin LCDA of Lagos state. The objective was to install a free solar panel (courtesy of Solar Jooce) in the village, on the condition that it would be the backbone of an income generating micro-business: garri-processing, palm oil processing etc. This community was recommended by the Rural Development Ministry of Lagos state, and two of its officers accompanied us to Imope.
Bam! It turned out to be the MOST challenging journey since Solar Jooce was set up. First, there are only 2 ways to get to this village - via a canoe or walking on a wooden foothpath supported by stilts over water.
The solar panels and heavy duty battery went via canoe, while we took the other route, drove some distance by car and proceeded to walk atop a very long wooden foot path. Mid way walking, part of the shaky bridge broke and three of us found ourselves ankle-deep in water. Luckily we had fallen in a shallow water area. My word, while our local guides traversed this 'bridge' with relative ease (they instinctively knew where the wooden planks had weakened and so avoided those areas), we sweated buckets while envisioning falling headlong into reptile infested waters.
With great relief, we proudly crossed the bridge, both ways, in one piece. It was an invaluable experience.
At Imope, we discovered that the village of 500 inhabitants already had a generator donated to them by the Lagos state government, which they claimed not to use because they could not afford diesel. We asked why they couldn't pool kerosene expenses and apply it to purchasing diesel and they drew a blank.
It was clear that this community hadn't gotten into a productive frame of mind, and simply wanted to be spoon-fed by "Government" or any other willing donor.
It also reinforced our belief that, for a community to inculcate an ownership approach to any project, the solution was definitely not to give them handouts, but to get them to be a partial investor. With their monies invested, no matter how small, they are 110% likely to make the project succeed.
And so, we hoisted our solar panel once more onto the canoe to transport it back to dry land, while we trudged back across the delicately wobbling bridge to catch up with the solar appliance that would arrive at the other side (sea bank).
For Lagos state government, it was back to the drawing board to determine the most appropriate beneficiary for our solar panel donation. Our uncompromising brief is to select a micro-business (or group of micro-businesses), that would make a small contribution towards owning the solar kit, and for whom the kit would be life-changing.
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