Solar Jooce - The 2011 Green Report

The 2011 Green Report (a Solar Jooce publication) - in memory of Professor Wangari Maathai

We have just launched the very first issue of our Green Report, a publication focused on environmental issues.

The 2011 issue is dedicated to the memory of Africa's great Green activist, Professor Wangari Maathai, whose Green Belt Movement (www.greenbeltmovement.org) revolutionised what African women could bring to the table in terms of rescuing the environment, creating jobs and providing the basic necessities of life.

Asides from featuring statistics (World Forest Data & World CO2 Emissions) to show how grave climate change matters have become the world over, the 2011 Green Report shows how exemplary corporate citizen, MTN Nigeria has incorporated a Green agenda into most of its activities from planting trees, to using biodegradable recharge cards, to deploying hybrid power solutions.

BATN Foundation has also jumped in on the ground floor by executing extensive re-forestation programmes around Nigeria.

Finally, the report interviews Christine K of the Green political Foundation, Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Nigeria - while Engr (Mrs) Bahijjahtu Abubakar (Head of the Renewable Energy Programme at Nigeria's Ministry of the Environment) talks about her portfolio and how it is structured to combat the country's ever worsening climate challenges.

Lighting up Osoogun [Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther's village]

Rusty signboard for the Bishop Ajayi Crowther Memorial Maternity Centre: a forewarning of the run down state of the entire Osoogun village


Our host, Bishop O. O. Oduntan (Bishop of Iseyin)


Maternity Ward of the Bishop Ajayi Crowther Memorial Maternity Centre. No electricity in the clinic. No electricity in the whole village


Solar light/phone charging unit presented by Solar Jooce to the clinic


Nurse Victoria Adeleke dressing a patient after a hernia operation. Bishop Oduntan organises free healthcare at the clinic, where they need lots more resources

Sunday, September 04, 2011.... Today, Solar Jooce visited Osoogun, village of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (1809 - 1891), foremost African christian of the 19th century and the first African Anglican Bishop in Nigeria. Bishop Crowther, who translated the Bible into the Yoruba language ('Bibelii Mimo'), was 12 years old when he was captured in Osoogun (along with his mother and young brother, other family members, and his entire village), by Muslim Fulani slave raiders in 1821 and sold to Portuguese slave traders. Ajayi Crowther later returned to Africa to spread Christianity, and help end the slave trade.

We were received at Osoogun by Bishop O. O. Oduntan (Bishop of Iseyin) to this place of contrasts - a village that has so much history yet is severely underdeveloped, with no electricity, running water, or basic healthcare.

Bishop Oduntan took us on a tour of the Bishop Ajayi Memorial Maternity Centre, which was built in 1976 by the Anglican church, handed over to government in 1978 and recently repossessed by the church in order to restore it from years of neglect.

Solar Jooce donated 4 combined solar kits/ phone chargers to the healthcare facility where Oduntan organises free healthcare, assisted by doctors from University College Hospital, Ibadan (Oyo state). Nurse Kehinde Victoria Adeleke and the indigenes present were immensely grateful for the solar kits/ phone chargers which would help with the facility's work at night and communication with villagers.

For those who have never heard of Osoogun, the itinerary from Lagos goes like this: Lagos--> Ibadan Expressway --> Abeokuta town --> Igbo-ora--> Eruwa junction --> Lanlate --> Maiya--> Osoogun.

Solar-for-the-Masses? There's just so much to do...
Sunday, September 04, 2011.... Today, Solar Jooce visited Osoogun, village of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (1809 - 1891), foremost African christian of the 19th century and the first African Anglican Bishop in Nigeria. Bishop Crowther, who translated the Bible into the Yoruba language ('Bibelii Mimo'), was 12 years old when he was captured in Osoogun (along with his mother and young brother, other family members, and his entire village), by Muslim Fulani slave raiders in 1821 and sold to Portuguese slave traders. Ajayi Crowther later returned to Africa to spread Christianity, and help end the slave trade.

We were received at Osoogun by Bishop O. O. Oduntan (Bishop of Iseyin) to this place of contrasts - a village that has so much history yet is severely underdeveloped, with no electricity, running water, or basic healthcare.

Bishop Oduntan took us on a tour of the Bishop Ajayi Memorial Maternity Centre, which was built in 1976 by the Anglican church, handed over to government in 1978 and recently repossessed by the church in order to restore it from years of neglect.

Solar Jooce donated 4 combined solar kits/ phone chargers to the healthcare facility where Oduntan organises free healthcare, assisted by doctors from University College Hospital, Ibadan (Oyo state). Nurse Kehinde Victoria Adeleke and the indigenes present were immensely grateful for the solar kits/ phone chargers which would help with the facility's work at night and communication with villagers.

For those who have never heard of Osoogun, the itinerary from Lagos goes like this: Lagos--> Ibadan Expressway --> Abeokuta town --> Igbo-ora--> Eruwa junction --> Lanlate --> Maiya--> Osoogun.

Solar-for-the-Masses? There's just so much to do...

Support for Cancer Research [UK]

We try to support causes other than ours. On Sunday, July 24, 2011, I joined a group of Nigerian ladies to run the 'Race for Life' in support of cancer research. Each participant is asked to give a reason for running the race. Mine was for all those who have cancer, those who succumbed and those who have survived. Hopefully, a cure for cancer will soon be found. It was a great day, in support of a brilliant cause.

Solar Jooce Launches Project 'Green Hands'

Solar Jooce launched its tree-planting exercise, tagged project Green Hands' in the month of July, 2011. The project kicked off at CMS Senior Girls' Secondary school, Bariga (Lagos, Nigeria) in association with the school's vibrant Climate Change club.

Project Green Hands is headed by Awele Awanyai, a final year student at the university of Lagos, Nigeria.

More pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.189363337787564.45118.100001416964107&l=a357e16027&type=1

Visit to Renewable Energy Training Centre, Cameroun

Leaving Douala for Bangang village, where ACREST is located


Dr. Vincent Kitio, Founder of ACREST


A solar lantern made by ACREST


ACREST provides its own power through a small hydro/wind station built by its staff


At Djoubé, on the way to Bangang: fresh fruit and food everywhere - consumed, sold and for export

More pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.190395101017721.45314.100001416964107&l=165b1fc0b8&type=1

ACREST is a Renewable Energy training centre located in [very cold and mountainous] Bangang village, approximately 350 km from Douala (Cameroun, West Africa). It took us 10 hours to get to Bangang (normally 5-6hours) because of the gnarling traffic jam in Douala. I made the trip with Dr. Vincent Kitio, founder of ACREST and Chief of Energy at UN Habitat.

The centre trains rural people to assemble, fabricate and maintain renewable energy appliances, which range from wind, solar, and bio-fuels to hydro. After training, even semi-literate men and women are able to distinguish the different electronic components of a solar system, for example + detect and replace faulty parts, and build an appliance from the ground up.

It was a pleasant surprise to learn that ACREST generates its own electricity (for its living quarters and training centre) from a small hydro-power station. It was even more exciting to find a range of locally made products, from solar lanterns to solar cookers, solar food driers, fireless stoves, bio-sand water filters, bio-gas plants (coverting waste to energy), wind turbines, wind pumps, and water purification devices and hydro - all proudly AFRICAN, and something Solar Jooce aims to replicate in Nigeria.

Power to rural people...

Solar-for-the-Masses | Dustbin Estate, Part II

Our second trip to Dustbin Estate in Ajegunle area of Lagos state (Nigeria) sw us donating a solar kit+phone charger to the homes of two very brilliant children, Emmanuel & Solomon.

Emmanuel always comes first in class and wants to be a lawyer. Solomon is a voracious reader and wants to be a doctor. Both children were so excited to have light that will enable them read at night and also do their homework - without strainig their eyes or making their parents buy kerosene to light up lanterns.



Solar jooce volunteer engineer, David Osokolo lights up Emmanuel's home, while Solomon (R) assists




The front of Solomon's house


Solomon's home all lit up. He gets the advanced solar kit with two light bulbs+phone charger

More pictures - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.183456055044959.44015.100001416964107&l=5761913a87

Solar-for-the-Masses: Dustbin Estate, Ajegunle [Lagos, Nigeria]

(L-R): Anne Agbakoba (Solar Jooce); and Tolulope Sangosanya (Project LOTS)


Dustbin Estate, Ajegunle


Tolu & Anne with midwife Madam Ogene Eze Mmili (2nd Left); Abiodun Ganiyu (our guide); and the baby delivered by the midwife. On the table is the kerosene lantern used by the midwife to deliver babies after dark


Solar Jooce volunteer engineer, Ekundayo Ojo sets up our donated solar unit atop the midwife's roof while news station NN24 films


Ekundayo shows the midwife, Madam Ogene Eze Mmili, how to work the solar unit and its phone charging function

Tolulope Sangosanya, Director of Project LOTS, has her modern-look office right inside the Dustbin Estate (Awodiora Community, Ajerunmi local government area of Ajegunle). There, she provides free after school lessons to the children of Ajegunle.

For the record, Dustbin Estate is an area filled with, and built on, trash. Tolu caught Solar Jooce's attention last year when she won the Future Awards (Nigeria) and brought the Dustbin estate to prominence.

Solar Jooce teamed up with Tolu on Thursday, June 23, 2011 and under her expert guidance we identified the most suitable recipients for our solar light/phone charging units.

The most intriguing recipient was Madam Ogene Eze Mmili who is:
1. a midwife. She delivers children within and outside the community. We were introduced to one of her patients who had just had twins)
2. a bone healer (she sets broken bones) and
3. a spiritualist. She says she eliminates the spirits of 'ogbanje' or 'abiku' - repetitive cases within a family of children who are born but do not stay long in this world. We caught a glimpse of her shrine but were not allowed to photograph it.

At the end of the solar install in her one bedroom where she sleeps and tends to maternity patients, Ogene Eze Mmilli broke into song and dance. She prayed endlessly for Tolu & team Solar Jooce, saying we had saved her the painful expense of having to buy kerosene for her lantern; we had given her reliable and enhanced lighting that will enable safe delivery of babies; and given her a phone charger to boot so she can charge/use her phone even when electricity is cut for days/weeks on end as is the case.

This entire visit was quite emotional but worth every second.

On the team were volunteer solar engineers:
1. Ekundayo Ojo - who came in all the way from Ilorin, Kwara state just to live this experience
2. David Osokolo - with an eagle eye for detail

The RCCG (Abundant Grace Parish, Port Harcourt), headed by Engr. Nosyke Okoye sponsored four of the lights for this project.