Powering St. Paul’s Mission Rural Health Centre

For rural health clinics in many parts of Africa, electricity is not being taken for granted. In sub-Saharan Africa, 3 in 4 health facilities are estimated to operate without reliable access to electricity. When the sun sets, clinics operate in darkness. Medical appliances are without power, laboratories are at a stand-still. At many clinics, water cannot be pumped. Both healthcare workers and patients are put at risk.

St. Paul’s Mission Rural Health Centre is located in the Central Province of Zambia, 200 kilometres from the capital of Lusaka. The clinic has suffered for a long time from consecutive power cuts, especially during the rainy season. The 22 staff members working at the facility, and serving an area of 13,200 people, have been forced to either stop their work or carry out procedures in the dark with the help of small handheld torches.

Going without electricity during night time means babies are being delivered in the dark, the laboratory has to stop their work, and there is a lack of water, as the water pumps are electric.

“There is a large health risk with no electricity. When the power is cut that means we have no water. No water means we are not able to clean bed sheets or tools as needed or they cannot be used because they have not been cleaned. We also feel unsafe walking from our homes in complete darkness and it can be demotivating,” says Kasongo Phiri, Nurse at St. Paul’s.

Sister Grace Mukupa is a Night Nurse and has worked at the clinic since 2013, “We are having a lot of challenges. When the power goes, then you don’t have anything. Maybe you have a woman in labour, then you have to find the ways and means of helping that woman.”

As part of a larger pilot to Power Healthcare, SolarAid, together with CHAZ (Churches Health Association Zambia) distributed the latest plug-and-pay, Pay-As-You-Go solar systems accompanied by energy-efficient medical appliances to St. Paul’s Mission in December 2020. Solar lights were installed at the laboratory, the children’s ward and the maternity wards……Read Full Story at: https://solar-aid.org/news/powering-st-pauls-mission-rural-health-centre/