The SVRG approach is grounded in community engagement and human centred design, to ensure the systems we install bring real, lasting benefit. Unfortunately, due to language barriers, we are unable to run focus groups ourselves, but rely on our in-country partners to assist with translation, or with running the entire group following training. Our translators …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/language-and-education-barriers-in-community-engagement/
Jan 01 2021
Off-grid multi-energy reporting system and AI load controller
SVRG are carrying out this 3 month project with funding from InnovateUK, the UK’s Innovation Agency. Most of our community development solutions have been powered by clean offgrid solar electricity. Monitoring and controlling these systems can be challenging, as every equipment manufacturer tends to have their own bespoke monitoring and data collection system. This presents …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/off-grid-multi-energy-reporting-system-and-ai-load-controller/
Dec 31 2020
Community Remote Healthcare Background and Priorities Report – Simanjiro, Tanzania
This report outlines the health needs and priorities of remote Maasai communities in Northern Tanzania, specifically in the Simanjiro region where our project partners, OMASI are based. The research was done as part of an Innovate Funded Project, exploring how video consultations and batched medicine delivery could help provide quality access to healthcare for remote, …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/community-remote-healthcare-background-and-priorities-report-simanjiro-tanzania/
Dec 10 2020
Nov/Dec 2020 Trip Video – Uganda
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/nov-dec-2021-trip-video-uganda/
Dec 04 2020
Solar-powered Milling Machine Evaluation
This report describes the results of tests conducted to assess the viability of an electric 3-phase 2.2kW Agsol hammer mill, imported from Kenya, for use in rural Maasai communities in Simanjiro, Tanzania. The objectives of the tests were to assess the viability of powering the mill from offgrid (solar) energy technology, and (for different mill …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/solar-milling-machine-evaluation/
Nov 28 2020
A Solar powered Electric Milling Machine
Many of the communities we work with are agricultural, with maize flour contributing to an integral part of their diet. In the rural Maasai Tanzanian communities we work with, villagers often have to travel miles to neighbouring towns to access a diesel milling machine. Once there, they can face long waiting periods for sufficient customers …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/a-solar-powered-electric-milling-machine/
Nov 06 2020
Bucket-mounted Solar Systems
Solar panel systems can be expensive and time-consuming to build. They can require specialist knowledge to set up, and be difficult to maintain. In rural communities, it can make a huge difference if a solar panel system can be made simply and at a lower cost. That’s why Smart Villages is always on the lookout …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/bucket-mounted-solar-systems/
Oct 14 2020
Sept/Oct 2020 Trip Video – Tanzania
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/sept-oct-2020-trip-video-tanzania/
Oct 07 2020
Grid extension in Tanzania
On our most recent trip to Tanzania, the number of half-fallen trees was quite noticeable. I thought nothing of it at first, even though several of them were lying across the roads. They could have been damaged in storms? That was until we realised that they were all under newly erected grid electricity lines. The …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/grid-extension-in-tanzania/
Oct 06 2020
Rural Perceptions of Solar Power
Although our first solar installation in rural Tanzania has been having overwhelmingly positive reviews by the local community (powering the local water borehole, the first fridge in the local shop, and a small, efficient, electric milling-machine) we still have a hard time explaining the concept of solar power to some of our other target communities. …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/rural-perceptions-of-solar-power/
Oct 06 2020
An Intro to Rural Tanzanian Schools
Trying to get a good education in the rural communities with which we work in Tanzania is a real challenge. With classes of 80 students, insufficient chairs, classrooms and equipment, no electricity or running water, lack of funds to buy textbooks, and some parents encouraging their children to fail the pre-secondary exams so they don’t …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/an-intro-to-rural-tanzanian-schools/
Oct 01 2020
Sustainable Offgrid EdTech for the Developing World
This project is funded by InnovateUK, the UK’s Innovation Agency. In the communities in which SVRG works, improving education is a high priority. Rural schools are often overcrowded, difficult to reach, and poorly resourced. Teachers are poorly paid, resulting in high rates of absenteeism among teachers at government schools. Existing educational material (for example free …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/sustainable-offgrid-edtech-for-education-continuity-and-outcomes-in-the-developing-world/
Oct 01 2020
Innovative Access to Healthcare for Impact in Remote Communities
STI4D, a sister company to SVRG, is carrying this project out jointly with our NGO partners in Tanzania, Orkonerei Maasai Social Initiatives (OMASI). This project is funded by InnovateUK, the UK’s Innovation Agency. Access to good healthcare is often challenging in the developing world, but this is greatly compounded for people living in remote off-grid …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/innovative-access-to-healthcare-for-impact-in-remote-communities/
Sep 30 2020
A Wood-Mounted solar array for the Tanzania’s Maasai Radio Station
The community radio station: Orkonerei Radio Service (ORS FM), is the first Maasai pastoralists’ radio and was established to better communicate with the Maasai in Terrat, Simanjiro district. For many Maasai who don’t understand Kiswahili or Maasai, it’s their only source of information and important for education on health and agriculture. At their peak, ORS …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/a-wood-mounted-solar-array-for-the-tanzanias-maasai-radio-station/
Sep 23 2020
Animals in the Electronics!
Three days before our recent flight to Tanzania, we’d received word that the inverter installed at our 50kW solar array in Ormoti had stopped working. The local electrician was sent in to take a look, and found a lizard had somehow managed to crawl inside and fried its brains. He removed the lizard, thinking it …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/animals-in-the-electronics/
Sep 23 2020
First impressions at Ormoti, and a Maasai welcome
This post was written new SVRG team member Natasha, on her first day on site in the communities in Tanzania: We arrived at the Ormoti site, to scenes of Maasai men sat around, wrapped in their traditional cloth. The solar array installed by Bernie, Anna and Arran previously was way bigger than I’d imagined, with …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/first-impressions-at-ormoti-and-a-maasai-welcome/
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/the-innovate-uk-energy-catalyst-programme-and-working-with-partners/
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/what-we-mean-by-community-engagement-the-svrg-way-of-working/
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/the-svrg-approach-what-are-we-all-about/
Apr 01 2020
Demand-side Modelling in Somaliland with the Minigrid Game
SVRG is carrying this project out jointly with our partners non-profit Energy Action Partners in Malaysia, and innovative private sector minigrid developer Clear Sky Power in Somaliland. This project is funded by InnovateUK, the UK’s Innovation Agency. Worldwide, renewable energy minigrids hold great promise for providing electricity to over 1 billion people who are still …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/minigrid-demand-side-modelling-with-the-minigrid-game/
Smart Villages Amazon Smile campaign
