May 31, 2021
Signify has joined forces with UNESCO to provide solar lighting technology to 16 schools in rural areas in Viet Nam, ultimately reaching 5,000 ethnic minority students.
Through sharing the power of light with 5,000 community members, the students in Ha Giang, Ninh Thuan and Soc Trang are provided with safer and healthier learning environments. A crucial step as many remote and mountainous areas of Vietnam, ethnic minority communities still face difficulties in their daily lives, especially poor conditions of traffic infrastructure and electricity grids.
In these areas, limited access to electricity has not only affected the performance of farming activities and economic development among the communities, but also challenged all aspects of people’s livings, movement and exchanging activities at night. In particular, limited access to electrical lighting systems has significantly prevented local students from accessing education, resulting in a higher rate of school drop-outs in general. Students in the Ha Giang province for example, had to travel up to 2 hours to get to school, often before and after sunset. Through enabling access to portable solar lights, access to quality education and safety is improved significantly.
Additionally, since the installation has been completed, Minh Tan secondary semi-boarding school for ethnic minority students held a ceremony to celebrate the project. At Minh Tan school, in addition to lighting equipment, a library was also set up to support the students’ daily learning activities.
