The Big Green goes GREEN!

It may be difficult to imagine that any object called “the Big Green e-Machine” could possibly get greener…but it’s true! This big green box which was transformed from a dis-used old tour land rover, into an inspirational mobile learning centre over the last 18 months has just had solar panels fitted to its roof and hooked up to central batteries which power it’s 15 laptop computers making the Big Green totally independent of any mains power supply!

 The Big Green visits rural schools and delivers computer literacy lessons to young learners in these schools (with the help of international volunteers) in association with the Wild Coast Schools volunteer program. Before this latest phase of development the lab had to have access to a fully functioning mains power supply to provide a full day of lessons in any rural school. As you can imagine, many of the rural schools that VA32 work with often have problems with their power supply – erratic connection to the grid, unpaid bills or a lack of electricity “credit” on their cards all being common problems. Any one of these circumstances could lead to lessons having to be cancelled or delayed. But no more! The Big Green simply has to be parked on the sunny side of the street to charge her batteries in preparation for a full day at school!

 The Big Green e-Machine initiative is a Friends of Chintsa project - take a look back at the history of this awesome project from conception to reality on the Friends of Chintsa website. There’s also a great movie of the Big Green in action available on youtube and loads of pictures of the Big Green in acion on our Flickr account!

If you would like to be involved in this project in any way but are unsure how, drop me an e-mail at info@volunteerafrica.co.za.

April