Lhasa Prefecture, TIBET

IMPROVING EDUCATION & SEEDING MICROENTERPRISE

The Challenge

Surrounding Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, is the Lhasa Prefecture, a rugged area of 33,000 square kilometers that is home to 260,000 ethnic Tibetan herders and farmers, many of them in very remote and isolated settlements.

Seventy percent of the population have no electricity, and practicalities will prevent the extension of a conventional power grid anytime soon, thereby blighting chances to address chronic problems of poor education, lack of economic opportunity, and inadequate health care.

Similar to other developing nations without electricity, children educated in the Lhasa Prefecture are rapidly being left behind in the global Digital Divide. Not only must kids study by candlelight at home, but their schools also have no photocopiers or over-head projectors (resulting in hours spent hand-copying notes), no electricity for heat in winter months, no TV's or VCR's for instructional videos, and certainly no computers to learn skills vital in today's computer-oriented job market.  For those children who do finish school, their job options are limited.

Even with limited economic opportunities, farmers in the Lhasa Prefecture find that the country's fertile soil and 3,000 hours of sunshine annually provide ample growth of the raw materials for several marketable food products, such as the rapeseed which is the main ingredient in the popular canola cooking oil. However, without electricity, raw materials must be shipped from the villages to electric-powered processing plants,  giving local farmers a disproportionately small share of the crop's value. 

In addition to limited educational and economic opportunities, like so many of its neighboring countries, Tibet's health care system suffers from a lack of electricity, without which vaccines cannot be kept refrigerated, sterilization of tools is difficult, and nighttime emergency operations cannot be performed.

The Solution

SELF will partner with the Boulder-Lhasa Sister City Project to bring solar systems to schools and health clinics throughout the Lhasa Prefecture, and also implement solar power for use in new microenterprises devoted to the processing of rapeseed oil and Tibetan incense.

Project Goals Include:

• Building on lesson's learned from SELF's Myeka High School project in South Africa, SELF will bring solar energy to three rural schools, benefiting hundreds of Tibetan children. 

• Establishing a solar-powered canola oil microenterprise in Phenpo Lhundrup County (where rapeseed is the main crop)—using solar electricity to power a rapeseed selecting machine, an extracting machine, and a filtering machine. By eliminating the need to transport the raw materials more than 100 kilometers to the nearest processing plant with electricity, this enterprise co-operative will enable approximately 100 households to earn additional income. 

• Instituting a solar-powered incense enterprise in Nyemo County (which is famous for its Tibetan incense)—including: a blending machine, a shattering machine, and an incense stick maker.  The new enterprise will increase self-reliance and decrease production costs by allowing the villagers to produce incense from beginning to end, rather than ship the raw materials over 100 kilometers to the nearest factory.
  
  Since incense processing will only be possible 6-8 months each year, the solar system will be designed to allow for other productive uses during the winter months. A winter co-op for making woolen garments and rugs (as seen below), crafts, and other products will provide supplemental income for the villagers.

YOU Can Power Tibetan Education and Economy!

This vital project has not yet been funded.  Please contact SELF for a full proposal, or click on this button to contribute on-line.

Here are some examples of how your investment will help:

• $25 can purchase a full lighting kit, including ballast, fixture, and bulbs for a Tibetan school room.
  

• $50 can purchase a deep-cycle battery that will store solar electricity, allowing microenterprises to operate in the evenings and on days with heavy cloud cover.
  

• $100 can purchase a high quality solar lantern that will allow villagers to have portable light at night.
  

• $500 can purchase a complete solar home system for one family in Tibet, including: 50 watt solar module, battery, controller, switch, wiring, and bulbs.
  

• $1000 can electrify one entire health clinic in the Lhasa Prefecture, including solar panels, battery, wiring, switches, and lights.

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