According to Dipesh Khanal of RAN, people were distributing solar lights to the earthquake victims but they wanted to go a step further and produce something similar but cheaper and with the added advantage of charging mobile phone batteries. "We wanted to see how we could turn the existing models into low cost but effective products. We researched on this topic for a couple of days in Nuwakot and then we started building SPLMCs with locally available materials. We've used solar charger controller and solar panel, and we built our own DC-to-DC converter because the ones in the market were expensive," he states.The research in Nuwakot led to the finding that almost 80% of the houses were destroyed there. Lack of proper electricity forced locals in the upper regions of the district to walk for 10 hours to district headquarter Bidur in order to charge their mobile phones.
Till date, RAN has distributed the SPLMCs to Nuwakot, Dhading, Rasuwa, Kavre, Dolakha and Sindhupalchowk Districts. People of Nuwakot received 13 pieces while two pieces each were distributed in Dhading, Kavre and Dolakha. Rasuwa received one SPLMC whereas eight of these were distributed in Sindhupalchowk.
The next step in the campaign is to build enough SPLMCs for 23 VDCs in Nuwakot and later in Dolakha.
"We hope to be able to start this by mid June. The ones we distributed earlier were of 20 Watts. We're planning to make the new ones for 5 Watts so that the cost is low and we can make more of the SPLMCs. Maybe around 300 pieces," Dipesh says.
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