Vivant Foundation recently donated solar power systems to Palawan National School and Roxas National Comprehensive High School to support their Electrical Installation and Maintenance (EIM) NC II students.
Vivant Foundation Executive Director Shem Garcia, said this is a European Union-funded project dubbed as the Renewable Energy for Livelihood and Youth (RELY) that will be powering up off-grid schools in the country, of which six out of 16 school beneficiaries are in Palawan.
“We donated the equipment based on that program [EIM], but it was from our experience that we were able to find solution to how we will make electrifying off-grid school sustainable. Because of the work we did before that we came up with the idea that why we incorporate solar into the existing EIM program because it is what we gonna need in the future,” Garcia said.
The 30-month project, which will be concluding in 2021 covers Phase 1 of the project where there are series of training for teachers to be TESDA certified, including provision of solar power equipment as part of instructional and training materials, and Phase 2 where actual solar panels are installed to power the schools.
“The pilot was in Cebu in Bantayan, but when we were able to get the European grant and apply for it we wanted to make sure that Palawan is a part of it from our experience here that we got the idea. This is both a help and it is also a thank you because without our experience here in Palawan National School and down in Quezon, we would not have had the idea of how to make this project sustainable. And this project wouldn’t have got in the grant if not for the sustainability,” Garcia added.
The executive director also added that two schools are in Sabang where it will be partnering with the Palawan National School, four in San Vicente where their partner will be the senior high school in Roxas.
According to the project’s media briefer, the EU support comes under the Access to Sustainable Energy Programme (ASEP), a joint undertaking of the Department of Energy and the European Union, whose goal is to assist the Philippine Government in expanding sustainable energy generation to meet growing access to the poor and marginalized sectors.
Rely is a collaborative project implemented by international development organization sequa gGmbH, together with Vivant Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of Vivant Corporation, and PROCESS-Bohol, a social development non-governmental organization.
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(Published in Palawan Daily News, 1 September 2019)