The St Joseph’s School Project is the first project installed by Global Solace in Haiti. The St Joseph’s School is a Catholic school in the small village of Carcasse, Haiti located on the far western end of the island.
The 7 room school house plus auditorium had no working lighting sources except for small windows in the front and the rear of the classrooms and the door. The rooms were wired for one light each, however, the wiring was substandard and had burned up in several places. If the wiring worked, the lights were only available a few times per year when the local generator was turned on for special community events.
In 2009, GSI installed a small 450 watt solar PV system with batteries and an inverter to provide 120V, AC power to the school for lights, a few computers and the ever-present cell phone chargers. GSI provided the funding for the solar PV system.
In 2013 the facilities were expanded to include a second story on the school, the construction of a rectory for the local Priest, and the construction of a health clinic. In the fall of 2014, GSI installed a larger 3 KW solar PV system for the rectory, health clinic, and expanded school. In addition, GSI provided a network of 12 computers with internet access and educational software for the school.
Benefits: The system will improve immensely the quality of life in the village as the rectory and health clinic will get electric power and the school will have a computer center with internet access.
Status: GSI is currently seeking funding to allow for the expansion of the solar PV system. Additionally, volunteers are needed to help develop and translate open source educational software available on the internet to the needs of this school. GSI is partnering with several other educational institutions in this effort to select relevant software to go along with the Haitian national school curriculum.