Africa-Press – Botswana. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the Department of Energy have trained over 50 women on solar energy use.
The four-day training included assembling, installing, maintaining and repairing solar systems.
A UNDP official, Mr Johnson Maiketso said the intention was to transform and empower women as well as to ensure that the country achieved prosperity in rural areas.
The training, he said, was intended to stimulate interest in those with the resources as well as to create awareness and to contribute to the conservation of the environment.
He said increasing energy access was critical to advance socio-economic development and that UNDP encouraged the use of solar power.
“We want communities in rural areas and other areas to harness the natural resource because we have it in abundance,” he said.
Mr Maiketso also noted that solar energy was environmentally friendly and free of charge.
An energy engineer from the Department of Energy, Mr James Molenga said they realised during training that the majority of participants lacked knowledge about solar energy and how it worked.
The training, he said, drilled participants and provided them with technical skills necessary for the installation and maintenance of solar panels as well as budgeting and accounting to empower women socially and economically.
Another UNDP official, Ms Kefilwe Mokotedi said their target was to help women in rural areas alleviate poverty by using solar energy to support their businesses and advance climate change action.
She noted that some areas were not connected to electricity, but that residents needed it.
“We want to promote the use of renewable energy for a clean and sustainable future, and we believe that by empowering a woman we are empowering the community,” he said, adding that solar energy was an abundant resource, but that its use was limited.
Ms Mokotedi also said the trained group would be taken for further training abroad if all went well, and that they would eventually become technicians and trainers to other members of the community.
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